One Missed Strike: Tales From the Rebellion
by Davin Sunrider
Summary: (Original Trilogy AU) Oneshot collection set between 'One Missed Strike' Parts I and II. Featured stories: 'I Found Him', 'Brothers and Sisters', 'Starkiller', and 'The Emperor's Hand'.
1. I Found Him

_Author's Note: This is a follow-up to my AU story 'One Missed Strike, Part I', which covers the years between Part I and Part II_.

**"I Found Him"**

A small shuttle approached the pastoral world of Naboo, angling for the side of the planet which was currently dark, its intended destination in the middle of local night. The shuttle was nondescript and gray, impossible to associate with its famous pilot, a tall man in his mid-forties with short, severely cut dark blond hair and a grim expression.

Darth Vader, Sith Master and ruler of the galaxy through the Empire, sat alone in the cockpit of his tiny shuttle, which was barely big enough to have a hyperdrive. Though he was the Emperor and often did not have time for himself, he'd managed to get a day away from his responsibilities. This was important, and he would tolerate no disturbances for this visit.

As his small shuttle slipped undetected through Naboo's atmosphere, Vader adjusted the hood of his long black robe, making sure it covered his face. He wanted no one to know he was here; though he was the Emperor and could do virtually whatever he wanted, his reason for coming here was no one's business but his own. Darth Vader had no reason to come to Naboo, at least in the public's understanding, and if he was seen here, it would raise too many questions, especially where he was going.

He landed his ship as close as he could to his destination without arousing suspicion, and then quietly slipped away into the night, knowing the way by heart. In only minutes, he reached the building he sought, its white lines and gentle curves, typical of Naboo architecture, almost shining in the soft moonlight.

The man who had once been known as Anakin Skywalker walked with almost ceremonial slowness up the steps of the mausoleum that housed the body of Padmé Amidala Naberrie Skywalker, though the last name was inscribed nowhere in the building. It held a quiet, understated elegance, and it was obvious much loving care had gone into its construction. Images of the woman whose body it housed were everywhere in the mausoleum; some holograms, some sculptures, and others raised bas-reliefs depicting important events in her life.

Her husband thought to himself that the two most important events were missing, that of her marriage to him and the birth of their child, but only a few people in the galaxy knew of either event besides himself. A thought drifted through his mind then that if not for the Jedi Order, neither event would have had to be secret.

The mausoleum did not have a security system; Padmé was too loved on her homeworld for even the most obnoxious vandal to consider desecrating her tomb. It received visitors at all hours of the day, though not many came by at this time of night. Vader was sure he would be alone. He took a few moments to look through the mausoleum, passing his gaze over the images of his wife and recalling the memories that accompanied each one.

He paused, as he usually did when he came here, at the one image in the entire monument that depicted him and his wife together. It was a very famous image taken from the Battle of Geonosis, showing Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala fighting side by side in the opening battle of the Clone Wars. There was no obvious hint of their attachment, already strong by that point, but Vader could see it, especially in the way his younger self was looking at Padmé with concern, angling his lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt coming toward her.

"_You call this a diplomatic solution?" Anakin said, looking over at Padmé._

"_No," she replied, a hint of a mischievous grin quirking her lips. "I call it 'aggressive negotiations.'"_

_Anakin grinned himself and turned back to the battle, swatting a blaster bolt back at the droid who'd fired it._

He had no idea who had taken the image, but it was regularly featured in documentaries and textbooks, used to illustrate the battle. Vader felt the fingers of his mechanical hand clench as he remembered that he'd lost his arm at that battle, in his duel with Dooku. Padmé had been aghast at the wound, and she'd stayed at his side in the medical center when it had been treated, unable to hold his other hand for fear of revealing their relationship, forbidden under the restrictions of his order. He had known what she was feeling, though, and had drawn strength from her presence.

Vader moved on to another image, which showed Padmé with her family, all of them smiling. Her mother and father were seated, and she and her sister stood behind them with Sola's husband. Sola's daughters sat on their grandparents' laps, beaming at the camera. Unbeknownst to anyone in the picture but Padmé, the Naberries' other grandchild was also present; Vader could see by the time stamp that the picture had been taken while she was pregnant with Luke. He felt a small twinge of sadness, knowing he rightfully deserved to be in the picture with the rest of them, standing next to his wife and the rest of their family. But again, the restrictions of the Jedi had made what should have been a happy time for both of them a time of stress and secrecy, both of them fearful that they would be found out at any moment they were together.

"_Something wonderful has happened." Padmé looked up at her husband, happiness in her eyes. "Ani, I'm pregnant."_

_Anakin paused in shock; he certainly hadn't been expecting this. "That's…" He paused again for a moment. Finally, he smiled. "That's wonderful!"_

"_What are we going to do?" Padmé said, worry starting to enter both her expression and her tone._

_Anakin smiled. "We're not going to worry about anything right now, all right?" He reached up to touch her face with his flesh-and-blood fingers. "This is a happy moment." He looked down into her beautiful brown eyes. "The happiest moment of my life."_

_She smiled finally, and he leaned down to kiss her as she embraced him._

He quietly crossed to another image, one taken shortly before her first term as Queen of her homeworld. She looked exactly as she had the first time he'd seen her, and he thought back to that time, when he'd asked her if she was an angel.

_She was,_ Vader thought to himself. _She had to have been. _

Finally, he reached the end of the long entry hall, and he paused at the door to the inner room. He attempted to prepare himself, but he knew it was futile; he had the same reaction every time he came here.

As the man who'd been Padmé's husband stepped inside her tomb, he felt his throat constrict with emotion. She lay in front of him within a transparisteel coffin, rich chestnut hair draped around her as if in sleep. After Obi-Wan had sent her body home, Vader had learned, her parents had had it placed in suspended animation. The government of Naboo had paid for it, as well as this tomb, and so she was forever preserved as she had been on the day that she died. She truly appeared to only be sleeping, exactly the same as every time he'd watched her at night, but he knew she wouldn't smile if she woke up, wouldn't reach for him.

She would recoil in fear, Vader knew, and with good reason.

"_I don't believe what I'm hearing," Padmé said, backing away from him. "Obi-Wan was right; you've changed."_

_Anakin, Vader now, felt his jaw clench at the mention of his teacher. "I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan," he said, waving a hand dismissively. He looked down at Padmé with rising anger. "The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me."_

_Padmé backed away again, tears starting to form in her eyes. "I don't know you anymore," she said. "Anakin, you're breaking my heart. You're going down a path I can't follow."_

_Vader looked down at her. "Because of Obi-Wan?" he said._

"_Because of what you've done. What you plan to do. Stop," Padmé pleaded, looking up at him. "Stop now. Come back."_

_But Vader's attention was no longer on his wife. He looked up with growing rage at the figure standing at the top of the ramp of Padmé's starship. Obi-Wan looked back down at him with determination and resignation._

"_I love you," Padmé said, taking a step closer._

_The implications of what he was seeing were too much for him, and Vader snapped. "Liar!" he shouted at her._

_She gasped, looking behind to see Obi-Wan descending the ramp of her ship. "No," she said desperately._

"_You're with him!" Vader raged. "You brought him here to kill me!" He raised a hand, clenching his fingers as he seized her neck with the Force._

"_No!" she said again, bringing her hands up to her throat. She looked back at him in hurt and disbelief, as if unable to even imagine he would do such a thing._

"_Let her go, Anakin," Obi-Wan warned._

"_Anakin," Padmé pleaded, unable to say more because of his hold._

"_Let her go!" Obi-Wan said firmly, walking towards them._

_Vader finally released his grip, and Padmé collapsed, lying motionless on the metal landing pad._

"_You turned her against me!" Vader screamed at Obi-Wan._

_Obi-Wan looked back at him with an expression close to disgust. "You have done that yourself."_

_Vader walked away from Padmé, pulling off his outer robe in preparation to fight his old teacher. "You will not take her from me!"_

"_Your anger and your lust for power have already done that," Obi-Wan replied, dropping his own outer robe. "You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now…" He looked over at his former friend as the two of them circled one another. "Until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."_

The look in her eyes, the heart-wrenching look of utter hurt and disbelief as she protested, still woke him at night. Vader was unable to purge the memory from his mind, and every time his subconscious forced him to relive it, it hurt just as much as the first time he'd thought back on that fateful day.

Overcome with emotion, Vader dropped to his knees next to his wife's body. He placed his hands on the coffin, looking in with deep, wrenching remorse. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "If I could take it back, I would."

For the first time in long, long years, Anakin Skywalker choked back a sob, feeling a tear run down his cheek as he looked at the still body of the woman he'd loved. In her hands was clutched the necklace he'd made her shortly after they'd met, a tiny snippet of japor, which she'd told him once she'd had with her ever since. It had never left her in life, and now it never would leave her in death.

Anakin remained next to his wife for several moments, just looking at her, and finally, he took a deep breath, forcing himself to regain his composure.

"He lived, Padmé," he said to her body. "Our son is alive. I found him." He kept his eyes on her face, one he knew almost better than his own, every detail as perfectly preserved in his memory as it was in the stasis field.

"Luke is alive," he said again. "He's all grown up now, and we both missed it." He had to squeeze his remaining eye shut against the new wave of emotion that swept over him. "Because of me." He felt a slow burn of anger as the events of that day twenty years ago replayed in his mind. "No, because of _him_."

Vader allowed the rage he'd felt over his wife's death to enhance his still-burning hatred for Palpatine, for the man who'd lied to him and manipulated him into furthering the old man's scheme. If not for Palpatine, he never would have jumped headfirst into the Dark Side, never would have allowed it to control him so thoroughly that he saw deception where there was none, betrayal where there was none, and acted on the lies, costing him the only person who ever just let him be who he was and didn't expect anything from him except love. Vader was sorry he couldn't kill the old wretch again.

"It's all right," he said to her. "I can still fix things. Luke is powerful; just as powerful as me. Together, we can find a way." Vader felt his tears burn away under his determination. "We can still be a family."

Vader fell silent again, continuing to kneel at his wife's side with his hands as close to her as he could manage, not wanting to leave. He spent the next several minutes this way, in silence, until quiet footsteps in the hall beyond the tomb disturbed his peace. Vader stood, pulling his black hood over his face, and drew back into the shadows at the corners of the room, using the Force to make himself nearly invisible in the darkness.

As he watched, irritated at being disturbed, Padmé's sister Sola walked in, looking so much like her that it almost hurt. Sola was in her forties now, the age Padmé would be if she had lived, and she had hints of gray in her long brown hair, so similar to her sister's.

Sola looked around for a moment once she entered the tomb, as if she could sense someone else was there, but she did not see Vader, and stopped at the foot of the transparent coffin. "Hello, Padmé," she said, a sad smile on her face.

She paused for several moments, and Vader was distinctly uncomfortable, but she was between him and the exit; there was no way to leave without her seeing him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sola said finally. "You know I would have helped you if I could."

Vader was puzzled; what was she talking about?

"I've seen his face on the news reports," Sola said, still looking down at her sister's body. "The Rebellion has a new Jedi, and his name is Luke Skywalker." She paused again for a moment. "He looks like him, you know. That handsome young Jedi you brought home once. But he looks like you, too."

Sola leaned forward slightly, placing her hands gently on her sister's coffin. "I would have helped you," she said again. "You didn't have to hide it from me." She sighed. "With the way he turned out, I can see why you had to hide your boy from Anakin. But why didn't you send him to me? You know I would have been happy to take care of him."

Vader pulled himself further into the shadows, sensing where this was going. He especially didn't want his sister-in-law to see him now.

"What happened to you, Padmé?" Sola asked, her voice full of sadness. "Where did you go after you left Typho behind? Who sent you back to us like this? For twenty years I've wanted to know, but you can't answer me." Sola's expression shifted to one of anger. "Did _he_ do this to you? Did Anakin hurt you?"

Vader forcibly kept himself calm, using all his willpower to keep himself from saying anything.

Sola sighed sadly. "I'll never know," she said finally. "But I can find your son. I'll find him, Padmé. I'll make sure Luke knows his mother. I don't know where he's been, but I'm sure he thinks about you, wonders who you were. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll do it. I'll tell him all about you."

That was enough; Vader didn't care now. He couldn't allow the boy's aunt to further poison his son against him.

"You will do no such thing," he said, emerging from the shadows so that he was outlined by the beam of light illuminating the transparent coffin.

Sola gasped, backing away in shock. Vader drew back his hood and moved closer to her, glaring balefully at his sister-in-law with his remaining eye. She turned nearly white with fear, backing away until her shoulder met the far wall of the tomb.

"Wh-What are you doing here?" she stammered, frightened.

"You will stay away from my son," Vader said gravely. "If anyone is to tell him about his mother, _I_ will. He is no business of yours."

Sola managed to compose herself, her ire rising through her fear, and she took a step away from the wall, looking up at him determinedly. "Luke is just as much Padmé's son as he is yours," she said, showing the same spirit her sister had on so many occasions. "He has a right to know his mother's family, more right than you have to keep him away from us."

"You will not try to contact my son," Vader warned. "I have left Naboo alone during my reign, but that can quickly change."

Sola blanched again, knowing he meant every word, but again her spirit overcame her fear. "What happened to you, Anakin?" She moved closer, looking up at him. "How did you turn into…" she gestured at his dark clothing and the patch that covered one eye, "this? Is there anything left of the young man I met all those years ago?"

Vader narrowed his eyes, and was silent for a long while. "No," he said finally. "Anakin Skywalker died on the same day as his wife." He leaned in closer. "Their child died with her. Am I making myself clear?"

Sola brought a hand up to her throat, where she felt a slight pressure. She nodded sadly. "Yes, I understand. I'll leave him to you."

Vader straightened. "Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to install a permanent Imperial presence here. I always liked this world; I would hate to see it conquered."

Sola nodded, sighing. "Yes, Anakin _is_ dead, isn't he?"

Vader turned angrily without saying another word and stormed out of Padmé's mausoleum, leaving her sister behind.

Sola turned back to the body of her sister, forever preserved in youth and beauty. "Don't worry," she said quietly. "I'll find a way. I won't let that monster have your son. I won't let him twist Luke the way he was twisted.

"I'll find a way."

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: This is a bit more angsty than what I usually write, but I decided to test myself to see if I could do it. You'll have to let me know if I succeeded or not. Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, this is a follow-up to my story '_One Missed Strike, Part I_', which corresponds to '_A New Hope_' in my AU. This story, a series of oneshots, bridges the gap between that story and 'OMS: Part II', the '_Empire Strikes Back_' equivalent. I'm planning four more short stories:

'_Brothers and Sisters_': Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa have no idea they are twin siblings, but feel a connection nonetheless. As they continue their struggle against the Empire, Luke and Leia develop a friendship, comparing their histories to find some surprising similarities. Meanwhile, the young Jedi Malysa Kolos, in a reverse of Mara Jade, continues her own mission as an undercover agent within the Sith Order and the Empire, trying to find ways to secretly help Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion. Unbeknownst to her, her older brother Tyraj is a stormtrooper, a loyal part of Lord Vader's elite 501st Legion. Tyraj recognizes his sister aboard the _Executor_ shortly after the Battle of Yavin, and, knowing she was once a Jedi, wonders what her true motives are.

'_Starkiller_': The history of Darth Vader's Sith Apprentice, Darth Nova, followed by his new mission from his master: Find Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion, by any means necessary, and bring young Skywalker to the Emperor to begin his training in the Dark Side...

'_The Emperor's Hand_': The history of this universe's Mara Jade, how Darth Vader found her and trained her as a deadly assassin and spy; an Emperor's Hand. Her story is told through flashbacks as she continues her mission as an undercover agent within the Rebellion and attempts to sort through her unexpected feelings for her master's son.

'_You Guys Need Some Fun_': As the Rebellion searches for a new base, Han Solo decides his friends could use a break from fighting the Empire, so he takes them to Ord Mantell to enter the _Millennium Falcon_ in the Blockade Runner's Derby. But, unbeknownst to them, the deadly bounty hunter Boba Fett is closing in on his prey...

These may be a little while in coming, as my laptop is being repaired right now and I don't know how long it'll be until I get it back. I'm also busily working on 'OMS: Part II', being about halfway through it right now. I'll attempt to work on it and the above stories through my flash drive and the other computers I have access to, but work will go much faster when I get my laptop back. Thanks for reading!


	2. Brothers and Sisters

**Brothers and Sisters**

_Two weeks after the Battle of Yavin…_

"I pledge myself to the Sith Order and to your teachings. Command me, Lord Vader."

Malysa Kolos kept her eyes on the ground as she recited the last part of the oath declaring her change of allegiance to Darth Vader's Sith Order. The Sith Master himself was taking her oath, though all she could see of him from her vantage point, kneeling with head bowed, was the hem of his long black cloak and the tips of his polished black boots.

"Rise."

That single word resonated with command, yet somehow also managed to convey a sense of pride. As Malysa stood, she looked up into the single piercing blue eye in Darth Vader's face. The other was covered by a black patch, as he had lost it in the recent space battle at Yavin. Oddly, he did not seem to care, and the characteristically moody and angry Dark Lord had been almost… happy, as far as that could be applied to the Sith Master, for the last two weeks, ever since he had come back from investigating the Rebel base. The crew of the _Executor_ was puzzled, but knew better than to question their leader's good mood. They were few and far between, and the Emperor's crew had learned to try and sustain them however possible.

Malysa and the Sith Master stood in the main room of Lord Vader's quarters aboard his flagship, alone. Her lightsaber hung from her belt, and the young Jedi took a brief moment to test out her new mental shields by entertaining a momentary notion of cutting the Emperor down with it.

Outwardly, her expression did not change, remaining one of patient loyalty, and Lord Vader gave no indication of sensing her thoughts. As several silent moments went by, Malysa had to work to keep her relief contained behind her shields also.

During the battle two weeks previous, a Jedi Master had contacted her through the Force to let her know that she was not alone, and that she should pretend to align herself with the Sith Master in order to provide valuable information to the Rebellion and Luke Skywalker, the only other living Jedi she knew of besides the Master who had contacted her. The Jedi Master, who had not yet named himself, had taught her to shield her thoughts, for which she was immensely grateful. If she hadn't been able to do this, Malysa knew she would likely have given in to Vader, and her pledge of devotion would have been genuine.

Finally, Darth Vader broke the silence by holding up a small red crystal, the color of recently spilled blood, and he held it so that the light from the glowpanels overhead made the gem seem to glow from within.

"This gem will be the symbol of your dedication to the ways of the Sith," Lord Vader said. "Place it within your lightsaber, to symbolize your abandonment of the false teachings of the Jedi and your new devotion to the true path to mastery of the Force."

Malysa kept up the façade of devotion, lowering her voice to an awed and respectful tone. "Yes, my Master," she said, bowing her head again.

She accepted the gem as if it were a priceless artifact, not an object that seemed to burn her hand, something she wanted to hurl as far away as she could.

The corner of Vader's mouth quirked in an almost-smile. "You are already skilled," he said, a hint of pride in his voice. "Your training will be short. I predict you will become a powerful Sith."

"Thank you, Master," Malysa replied, trying as hard as she could to keep the look in her eye she had seen in many of the Emperor's other servants; awe mixed with respect and a hint of fear.

Vader was apparently fooled; he gave no indication of seeing past the surface to her true feelings. "You are dismissed," he said, gesturing slightly to the door to his quarters. "As you place your new crystal inside your lightsaber, meditate on the true aspect of the Force, how both the Light and the Dark must be balanced within yourself, until I call for you."

Malysa bowed her head again. "Yes, my Master."

Vader turned to look out of the expansive window that took up one wall of the room, featuring an excellent view of the complex of Kuat Drive Yards, where the _Executor_ was being repaired. Small ships flitted back and forth over the enormous space station, flashes of light flaring up as they worked on the Imperial flagship, and the entire scene was framed by the star-field above and the blue-and-green curve of the planet Kuat below, where Malysa and her brother had been born and their family lived, mid-level technicians in the shipyards.

As she left the Emperor's quarters, Malysa's thoughts drifted to her brother Tyraj, whom she hadn't seen in more than twelve years. Where was he, she wondered. Was he still on Kuat with their parents, or had he left the planet on one of the adventures he had talked of when they were younger?

As far as he and their parents would know, she had left on a scholarship to a prestigious academy on Coruscant and was still there, now working on her higher education at one of the universities. She and her Jedi Master had constructed this cover to avoid drawing attention, since the Empire was fanatically obsessed with rooting out the last elements of the old Order and wiping them out. Malysa had never taken the propaganda to heart, and she suspected her mother hadn't, either, but both her father and brother were firm believers in Lord Vader's New Order.

Malysa nodded to a group of stormtroopers she passed in the hallway, and, surprising her, they stopped and saluted. Unsure of what to do, she nodded again, meeting the leader's eyes through the tiny black lenses in his helmet. He dropped his hand, brought his rifle back into position and spun with military precision to continue on down the hallway, followed in lockstep by the rest of his squad.

The young Jedi watched them go for a moment, surprised by their reaction, but then she realized that, dressed as she was in black and dark gray Sith robes, with a lightsaber hanging from her belt, she was obviously one of Lord Vader's disciples and thus technically of higher rank in the Imperial Army than any stormtrooper or officer. Vader had explained this to her once, saying that he had kept the rank system the Jedi had used during the Clone Wars, where anyone of Knight status or higher was a general in the Army of the Republic, with Padawans holding the nominal rank of Commander and thus in the position to give orders to any clone solider of lower rank.

In the Imperial Army and Navy, any Sith was of higher rank than anyone but an admiral or Grand Admiral, and thus were seen as Lord Vader's direct representatives among the military. She wondered if any of the Sith abused this power, since the ability to give orders to almost anyone surely tempted the Dark Side in those of cruel mindset.

Malysa wondered what she would do if requested to lead an Imperial mission with stormtroopers under her command. Would she be able to carry out whatever mission was requested of her, knowing she had to maintain cover at all costs?

She shook her head as she approached her quarters. Her mission right now, as explained by the mysterious Jedi Master, was to gain Lord Vader's trust and earn enough responsibility to guarantee secrecy for any transmissions or other information drops to the Rebellion. She needed to be secure in her position as a Sith before she could begin her mission as a double agent, and would need to be extremely careful in order not to be caught. If she was, the consequences would almost certainly be death, probably immediate and painful.

Malysa strode inside her small, spartan quarters and headed for the low table in the center of the main room, where she sat down on the floor and set her lightsaber and the red crystal Darth Vader had given her on the flat, drab gray surface.

It disturbed her, having to replace the azure crystal her Jedi teacher had given her when it was time for her to construct her own weapon, since to her it was the last reminder of the man Vader had killed on the _Tantive IV_, who had been almost a father to her for more than a decade.

Malysa sighed. She missed Master Sunrider, missed his gentle way of teaching and his teasing sense of humor, the way he would get a mischievous look in his eyes when he was having a joke at her or her fellow student Joran's expense. Darth Vader had killed both of them without a second thought, and would likely have killed her, too, if the stormtrooper he was with hadn't shot her in the back.

She reached back to rub the scar just below her shoulder from the blaster burn, which still ached at times but was otherwise healed.

Frowning, Malysa reached for her bag and took out the tools with which she maintained her lightsaber, preparing to complete the illusion of her new allegiance.

* * *

"You know, I don't think I like being famous."

Han Solo snorted in amusement and looked over at his young friend Luke Skywalker, seated across from him on one of the couches in the officers' lounge of the Rebel flagship _Home One_. The two of them, along with Han's Wookiee copilot, Chewbacca, sat in the aquatic-themed room watching another HoloNet news broadcast, this one an official report from the Empire updating its Most Wanted Fugitives list. Luke had now placed in the top five, under Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, the Alderaanian's daughter Leia, and Admiral Ackbar.

Ever since Alderaan, where he and several others had staged a daring rescue of the royal family, Luke's name and face had been everywhere on the various news broadcasts available to the galaxy. Those sympathetic to the Rebellion played up the fact that he was a Jedi, and constant comparisons were drawn to the young Anakin Skywalker, the hero of the Clone Wars. Most of these did not mention that that same Anakin Skywalker now ruled the Empire under the name Darth Vader, but some even went so far as to speculate that Luke was a relative of the dashing young man who'd led the fight against the Separatists two decades before. He of course was, being Anakin's son by a secret marriage to the late Padmé Amidala, but this was not public knowledge.

The Empire had been quick to respond to this, issuing an official statement from the Emperor himself that Luke was a wanted fugitive and effective immediately, there was a million-credit bounty to be paid on live capture of the young Jedi and delivery to any Imperial base. Emperor Skywalker's statement had also made it plain that he thought the boy was an impostor, using his name in an attempt to gain sympathy for the Rebellion, and he had encouraged any loyal Imperial citizen who spotted the young man to turn him in immediately.

This was probably why Luke had said what he did, and Han chuckled as he reached over to gently punch Luke's shoulder.

"Welcome to the other side of the law, kid," he said. "You get used to it eventually."

Luke looked up at the older man with his deep blue eyes, the exact same shade as his father's, and made a half-hearted attempt at a smirk. "Yeah, I suppose you know about having a price on your head, don't you?"

"Had one for most of my adult life," Han replied, grinning again. "Never one as high as yours, though. You're gonna have to be careful."

Chewbacca growled a statement, gesturing at the holoprojector, and looked over at Luke.

Han nodded. "Chewie's got a point. As long as you keep to the fringes and don't go anywhere with a lot of loyalists, you don't really have to worry about being turned in. The sort of people we associate with, attention from the Empire is the last thing they'd want, since the Imps have an irritating tendency of not looking the other way in exchange for information."

The smuggler grinned again, looking over at Luke with a teasing expression. "Besides, women can't get enough of famous guys, even fugitives."

Luke chuckled as he glanced back up at the news program, now summarizing the Alderaanian Royal Family's escape from the Empire's custody. In the course of the summary, it was mentioned, as it often was, that Emperor Palpatine's assassin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, had finally been brought to justice by Lord Vader himself.

Han watched the hint of pain flash through his friend's eyes at this, but the young man otherwise attempted to suppress his reaction. Han knew how much the old man had meant to Luke, and he knew that it had to be hard for the kid to be reminded of it all the time.

For one, as Luke had said before, it wasn't Kenobi who'd killed Palpatine on Mustafar; according to the Jedi Master himself, he had been long gone from the small volcanic planet by the time the first Emperor had arrived, so the only one who could have killed him was Vader. That made perfect sense to Han; the current Emperor was just as ruthless as he was powerful, having no compunctions whatsoever about killing to accomplish his goals. The Ssi-Ruuk war had proved that definitively.

Secondly, old Ben Kenobi had been Luke's mentor, a sort of surrogate father to the boy, and Luke had taken his death hard. He'd been pretty quiet since the excitement of the rescue on Alderaan and the subsequent battle at Yavin had died down, keeping to himself mostly.

The only time his mood lifted was when Mara Jade was around, though the young man was doing his best to hide his crush on the fiery young Rebel. Amusingly, he wasn't doing a very good job, and if Luke thought he was keeping it a secret, he was kidding himself in a big way. Han derived endless amusement from watching the normally confident young Jedi trip all over himself when Mara was talking to him. He was pretty sure she thought it was funny, too, in an endearing sort of way; there were hints that she liked Luke, too, though she was thankfully less obvious about it.

The doors to the officers' lounge hissed open and Princess Leia Organa walked in, dressed in a white and tan Rebel uniform, as had been her habit of late, and she smiled as she spotted Luke and Han. The smuggler grinned back, flashing her his most charming smile as she approached.

Leia said nothing, but, as Han observed triumphantly, she _did_ sit down next to him. He left his arm draped over the back of the couch, still grinning. Leia fixed him with an amused smirk, as if to say '_you wish'_, before turning to Luke.

"I saw you made the top five on the Most Wanted list," she said to the young Jedi.

"Yeah," Luke chuckled. "Now _all_ the bounty hunters in the galaxy are after us instead of just half."

"Garm Bel Iblis is going to be mad you pushed him out," Han said, smirking. "Now he's only the sixth-most-wanted being in the galaxy."

Leia laughed lightly. "You're probably right."

"Hey, have your dad and Ackbar decided where we're going yet?" Han asked the princess. "Not that I don't love the little aimless trek we're on here."

"My father and the other Alliance leaders are still searching for a good location to make our new base," Leia answered. "The Empire has devoted a large portion of their fleet to the search for us, and we need to find a place they won't stumble across easily."

Han scratched his chin, frowning thoughtfully. "Plenty of empty systems out past the Rim. It just depends on how far you're willing to get from civilization."

"Why not Tatooine?" Luke suggested jokingly. "You can't get much farther from civilization than that."

Chewbacca let out a barking laugh, growling a further statement made Han laugh himself.

"Yeah, that's true," the smuggler agreed.

"Admiral Ackbar wants to take the fleet to a sympathetic system so we can refuel and restock our supplies," Leia said, looking over at Han, "and he wanted me to ask you if we could use the _Falcon_ to scout out the system and make sure there isn't an Imperial presence there."

Han shrugged. "Sure. Where're we going?"

"The Taris system," Leia answered. "It was fairly affluent once, but the trade routes moved away from the area as the Republic expanded, and it fell into decline. The Empire barely takes notice of it, since there's really nothing useful to them there."

Chewbacca growled a comment, and Han nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I've never been there, either," the smuggler said to his furry copilot. "At least we won't be recognized."

"We'll be there in about two hours," said Leia. "I sent some Alliance technicians to check over your-"

Han sat up straighter, interrupting her. "Wait a second! Are you telling me you sent some of your mechanic monkey-lizards to poke around _my_ ship?"

"Our technicians are perfectly qualified to service your flying death-trap!" Leia retorted. "Though I can see how you'd be mad, since you and your hairy friend are probably the only ones who know how to make sense of all the 'modifications' you've made to it."

"You're damn right!" Han said hotly, jumping to his feet. "Come on, Chewie. Let's get down there before those techs start messing with our systems."

As the Corellian smuggler and the Wookiee left the officers' lounge, Leia turned to see Luke smirking amusedly.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked, her amusement at Han's reaction coloring her tone.

Luke just smiled wider and shook his head. "I could have told you how he is about the _Falcon_. He and Chewie probably _are_ the only ones who can take it apart and put it back together again."

Leia smiled again as she nodded slowly, leaning back into the thickly padded couch. She sighed, looking up at the holoprojector, and Luke looked over at her curiously.

"What is it?" he asked, concern on his face.

Leia rested her elbow on the couch's armrest and supported her head with her palm, threading her fingers into her hair. "The Alliance is in trouble, Luke," she said finally. "His defeat at the Battle of Yavin has made Vader angry, and he's become much more aggressive in his pursuit of our fleet." She glanced over at the young Jedi. "The list of safe havens for us is getting shorter and shorter all the time."

Luke was quiet for a moment, picking at a spot on the knee of his trousers. "Well," he said slowly, "you knew what would happen when you decided to rebel against someone like my… like Darth Vader," he corrected himself almost defensively, as if not wanting to admit that Lord Vader was his father aloud again.

Leia looked over at the young man, seeing the strong resemblance to Anakin Skywalker almost more than usual as the young Jedi looked off at the wall, fingers idly toying with the hem of his long brown robe. She couldn't imagine what it was like to be in Luke's situation, knowing the most feared man in the galaxy was his own father, and on top of that, seeing that father kill the man who'd been his guiding influence for most of his life; both Skywalkers' lives, in fact. Vader had even tried to kill Luke during the battle around the _Executor_, though the young Jedi was fairly certain Vader did not know Luke was his son.

How could it feel to have your father as an enemy? When Leia thought of her own father, she thought of Bail Organa, a strong man with stronger convictions, willing to stand up for what he believed in, even if he faced fierce opposition. He was also a gentle parent, firm but never cruel, preferring to explain why something his daughter did was wrong and make her understand why she shouldn't do it again than just punish her for it.

As the two young Rebels sat in companionable silence, Leia's thoughts drifted to her birth father, a man she knew nothing about. She'd been naturally curious when she had found out she was adopted, but her parents had told her that all they knew was that her birth parents had died near the end of the Clone Wars and Bail and his wife had adopted her, since Breha could not have children of her own.

Something bothered her about this story, but Leia could not put her finger on it and simply accepted it as the truth, knowing Bail and Breha would never lie to her.

Grateful for at least a short break in her busy schedule, Leia sat back on the couch and enjoyed the comfortable silence while it lasted.

* * *

Trooper TK-421, also known as Tyraj Kolos, had to devote a large part of his concentration to keeping in step with his fellow troopers, marching at the front of their formation. Usually, this was second nature to Tyraj, an Imperial loyalist to the bone, a man who had graduated fifth in his class of over ten thousand at the academy on Carida.

But today, he had seen something he hadn't seen in over a decade: his younger sister Malysa. His squad had passed her only moments ago, and it had taken all his discipline to remember to salute the dark-robed figure, once he got a good look at her face. What was she doing here? He had thought her to be at school on Coruscant, and her periodic messages, which their parents sent to him, seemed to indicate that all was progressing normally.

As his squad entered the barracks, their duty shift over for the day, Tyraj sat on his bunk and removed his helmet after securing his blaster rifle in the cabinet that sat on one side of the room.

The other men in his squad moved off to begin stowing their armor in the storage space under their bunks, but Tyraj's thoughts dwelled on the woman he'd passed in the hallway, and he sat down on his bunk distractedly, ignoring the fact that his armor was digging into his side uncomfortably.

If Malysa was on Coruscant at university, that couldn't have been her in Sith robes here on the _Executor_. She didn't have Force potential; the mandatory testing would have caught it during her childhood immunizations, and their parents would have been asked to send her to the Sith Temple when she was still small.

But, Tyraj doubted that he'd fail to recognize his own sister, even after having not seen her face-to-face in more than a decade. That couldn't have been anyone else. But why would she not have told him and their parents she was receiving Sith training? Being a disciple of Lord Vader was something to be proud of; by all common sense, they would have received an excited message from her if Force potential had been discovered. True, she had never visited since leaving and messages were seldom, but the rest of the Kolos family had taken that as just one of the realities of having a child on the other side of the galaxy in an exciting place. Transportation was not cheap for those kinds of distances, and they had never been a wealthy family.

Another thought hit Tyraj like a blaster shot, and his hand unconsciously went up to touch the scar on his shoulder he'd received during the assault on the _Tantive IV_ a few weeks ago. His glove bumped into his armor, and he glanced down to see the remnants of the scorch mark he'd dutifully tried to polish out of his chest plate.

The woman who had attacked Lord Vader just before he was wounded, the Jedi who had deflected Tyraj's own blaster bolt back into his shoulder, had looked strikingly similar to his sister; short dark hair, slender build, and a Kuati set to her features.

Frowning at the implications this presented, Tyraj reached for his helmet and set it on his leg as he pulled his personal datapad out of one of the storage drawers under his bunk. Once he had turned it on, he accessed his helmet cam's archive and pulled up the recorded footage of the attack on the Alderaanian vessel.

He fast-forwarded through the walk next to Lord Vader through the corridors of the consular ship, skipping over the Sith Master's questioning of Leia Organa and the first part of the fight with the three Jedi. Once the second Jedi fell, Tyraj let the recording play at normal speed.

When the female Jedi came on screen, Tyraj froze the recording and used the datapad to zoom in on her face. After a brief enhancement, Tyraj felt the color drain from his face.

There was no mistaking it: the female Jedi who had attacked Trooper TK-421 and Lord Vader was none other than Tyraj's sister Malysa.

Tyraj stared in shock at the blank wall in front of him. His sister had been a Jedi? How was that possible? How could she betray their family and the Empire like that?

His sister's face, illuminated by the blue glow of her lightsaber, seemed to mock Tyraj from the screen of his datapad. Another thought struck him then: he had shot his own sister in the back. But, his ingrained training was quick to remind him, she was apparently an enemy, and loyalty to Lord Vader and the Empire took precedence over all else.

The stormtrooper frowned. If she had fought him and Darth Vader so fiercely aboard the Alderaanian vessel, what was she doing walking through the halls of the _Executor_ in Sith robes?

"What's the matter, sir?"

Tyraj looked up at the voice that interrupted his thoughts to see one of his fellow troopers, dressed in an off-duty uniform, looking down at him with curiosity.

Before Tyraj could respond, the other trooper glanced down at the datapad and the image on its screen. The other man scoffed. "Jedi scum. I can't wait until Lord Vader finally kills the last of them."

Another trooper nodded. "It's hard to believe they've held on this long. There can only be a few left by now."

The first trooper laughed as he clapped Tyraj's armored shoulder. "They're even fewer, thanks to you, sir. I'm not surprised Lord Vader promoted you for that."

"Yes," Tyraj said distractedly. He switched off his datapad and put it back in the storage drawer, then picked up his helmet and put it on, glancing over at the other troopers in the squad he now commanded. "I'll be back in an hour."

He left the barracks without another word, unconsciously falling into a precise marching step as he headed for the nearest turbolift.

The best way to find out what Malysa was up to would be to ask her himself.

* * *

"Could you please stop pacing? You're going to drive me crazy."

Luke looked over at Leia and smiled sheepishly, sitting down in the nearest chair. "Sorry."

The two of them were in the _Millennium Falcon_'s cockpit, waiting for Han and Chewbacca to return from their scouting trip on Taris. Since the princess and the young Jedi were both too recognizable to risk wandering around out in public, they were staying here with the ship while the two smugglers tried to find someone willing to restock the Rebel fleet. Their task was to get the souped-up freighter ready to go quickly if their companions ran into trouble.

Han and Chewie had been gone for more than two hours, and though Luke was more obvious about it, both of them were growing increasingly bored.

Luke began drumming his fingers on the console next to him, and to head off what would quickly become an annoying habit, Leia swiveled her chair to face him and asked the first question that popped into her head.

"So, Luke, when is your lifeday?"

He glanced up at her, a bit of his longish sandy blond hair falling in front of his eyes. "Empire Day," he answered. "Why?"

Leia was briefly surprised. That was her own lifeday; that would make them the exact same age.

There was an odd coincidence; Anakin Skywalker's son had been born on the same day Palpatine had dissolved the Republic and replaced it with the Empire, and here he was, fighting against it to restore that Republic.

"Just curious," Leia answered. "I just want to get to know you a little better."

"Sure," Luke said, leaning back in his chair a little. "What do you want to know?"

"You grew up on Tatooine, didn't you?" When Luke nodded, Leia continued. "Were you born there?"

The young man shook his head. "No, Obi-Wan said I was born in a facility on an asteroid called Polis Massa. My mother…" He paused for a moment. "She died there."

Leia reached over to touch his arm. "I'm sorry, Luke." He nodded silently, but Leia paused as something he'd said registered with her finally. "My family owns that facility," she said, looking over at the young Jedi. "My father says he helped Master Yoda escape from Coruscant during the fall, and that he picked up Master Kenobi from Mustafar. If your mother was with Master Kenobi, my father was probably there when you were born."

She marveled at this odd connection between them, and almost missed Luke's shrug.

"Obi-Wan never said anything about your father being there, but he didn't like to talk about that day much. That was the day he and my father fought," he said quietly.

Leia nodded silently, thinking. The day of Luke Skywalker's birth had been one that changed the face of the galaxy forever. It was, she thought, somehow fitting that this young hero had been born on a day the galaxy would never forget, since already he seemed poised to have a great effect upon it.

Something else occurred to her then, along with a faint, nagging thought in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite seem to grasp. She gave voice to the first thought, still thinking on the less substantial one.

"My father never said anything about your mother being with Master Kenobi, though," Leia said thoughtfully. "I wonder why."

"Probably because Obi-Wan and Yoda were trying to keep my birth a secret from Vader," Luke answered. "Besides, no one except Obi-Wan, Master Yoda, and apparently Bail Organa knew Padmé was married to Anakin, so they were probably trying to keep that a secret, too."

Distractedly, Leia nodded as Luke spoke. There was something odd about the situation to her, but she couldn't put her finger on just what it was that nagged at her. It was almost as if someone was tugging at her sleeve, trying to get her attention, but she couldn't see anyone there.

She glanced up to see Luke looking at her with an odd expression, like something was puzzling him, as well.

"What is it?" she asked him, her own puzzlement slowly fading away.

He didn't answer at first, still staring at her, but finally, he shook his head and blinked. "Oh, nothing," he answered. "I thought I… I thought I felt something. In the Force," he amended. "But it's gone now. It was probably nothing," he said dismissively.

Leia had no response for this; she knew nothing about the Force and its mysterious powers, and frankly the whole thing was mystifying to her, anyway. Jedi were an odd lot at times, but their power was something to be respected.

In Sith, it was something to be feared. Vader and his apprentice Darth Nova were definitely men that deserved the fear of most sentient beings; both had showed no qualms about using the Force for spectacularly destructive ends, particularly in the various conflicts the two had led the Empire in during the last few years. The thought of how the two Sith Lords had ended the Ssi-Ruuk war still sent a periodic chill down Leia's spine, and it was one of her most fervent hopes that they never used that particular tactic ever again.

Her train of thought was further disrupted by a sharp rapping on the outer hull, and she glanced up to see Han waving at her through the security camera mounted outside the docking hatch, the enormous furry bulk of Chewbacca behind him. Leia tapped the controls that opened the hatch and lowered the ramp.

With a broad grin, the Corellian strode into the cockpit and patted Luke on the shoulder as he looked over at Leia. "Well, Your Highness," he began, winking at her, "you're going to be pretty happy with me; Chewie and I found a few merchants willing to sell the Rebel fleet some fuel and other supplies. Under the table, of course. There's an Imperial frigate patrolling this system."

Before Leia could speak, Han pulled a small datachip out of a pocket on his vest and handed it to her. "The patrol schedule, courtesy of a fellow smuggler. I didn't tell anyone who the supplies were really for, so you don't have to worry about word getting to the Imps about this."

"Thank you, Han," Leia said gratefully.

He grinned again. "Sure." The Corellian gestured with his thumb at the seat behind the one belonging to Chewbacca, indicating that she move there. "Now get out of my chair."

Han flashed a teasing smile at her as Leia frowned at him for his rudeness, and her frown took on an amused slant as she rolled her eyes at him. Luke chuckled as she rose and sarcastically gestured the smuggler into his customary seat as if it were a throne, inclining her head in mock obeisance.

The Corellian laughed as he sat down. "Apologies, Your Princesshood. Did I offend your royal sensibilities?"

"On a regular basis," Leia answered, smirking.

Chewbacca let out a barking laugh at this as he flipped switches on his console, readying the _Falcon_ for takeoff. Han grinned himself, shaking his head as he turned to his own console.

* * *

Malysa Kolos had just finished closing up her lightsaber around its new red crystal when the chime on her door sounded. She kept the weapon in her hand as she walked over to answer it, thinking the visitor to be Lord Vader come to resume his 'lessons' in his view of the Force.

She steeled herself, making sure her mental barriers were firmly in place, and thus was surprised when the door opened to reveal not the Sith Master but a stormtrooper, his face hidden behind his white skull-like helmet.

The trooper said nothing for a moment, and Malysa looked at him with curiosity and a small amount of irritation, letting both show on her face. "Yes? What is it?" She reminded herself that she was supposed to be a Sith now, and that this intrusion was imposing on her valuable time. "Speak quickly!" she said, putting a demanding tone in her voice, close to anger.

The stormtrooper was silent a moment longer, his body language suggesting confusion. "This… These aren't Lieutenant Krotan's quarters?" he asked finally, his helmet making his tone flat and unemotional.

Malysa had to make herself put an arrogant sneer on her face and disdain in her tone, acting as much like a Sith as she could. "Obviously not," she said haughtily. "What's your designation, trooper? Perhaps I need to speak to your commander and tell him his men get lost easily."

The trooper snapped to attention, his posture becoming abruptly rigid. "Trooper TK-421, ma'am. I apologize for the inconvenience. Take whatever disciplinary action you see fit."

Malysa raised an eyebrow, making a great show of studying him as if he were beneath her notice, an insect she was considering smashing beneath her boot. "Get out of here," she said finally, doing her best imitation of a Kuati noble dismissing a servant. "Pay better attention to where you're going in the future."

The stormtrooper saluted. "Thank you, ma'am. Again, I apologize."

Malysa stepped back from her door and closed it in the trooper's face, adopting a rudeness typical of those who believed themselves superior.

_Well_, she thought to herself as she went back inside her quarters, _if nothing else, I'm at least perfecting my acting skills._

Behaving in such a manner was tiring, and she was further disgusted with the Sith who acted that way naturally. But, she reasoned, that was the influence of the Dark Side, and she would have to be very careful to not let it lead her in the same direction during her time with the Empire.

This was going to be a daunting task, Malysa realized, not for the first time. She only hoped she was up to it.

* * *

Trooper TK-421 found an unoccupied munitions storeroom further on down the hall from his sister's quarters and closed the door behind him. Tyraj removed his helmet and sat down on the low counter in front of one of the storage cabinets, deep in thought.

His brief visit to Malysa's quarters had removed any lingering traces of doubt from his mind; the young Sith woman could be no one else. He realized then that he had been hoping there was a chance, however slim, that the young woman he'd encountered several times was not, in fact, his sister, just someone who looked eerily similar.

Tyraj sighed, running a gloved hand through his closely cropped hair. What was he going to do now? Should he go back and tell his sister that he was here on the _Executor_ with her? Or was he better off letting her think he was just another faceless stormtrooper, one of thousands patrolling the Emperor's flagship?

She had certainly acted like a Sith; while Lord Vader himself was rarely arrogant in his behavior toward his subordinates, some of his students had apparently let their power and responsibility go to their heads and behaved as if the rest of the Imperial military were lower life forms they were forced to deal with.

Tyraj was, he realized, unsure of how his own sister would react upon learning her brother was serving on the same vessel. Would she even care?

And what of the evidence he'd found in his own helmet recording, that she had once been a Jedi and had been aboard Organa's vessel? Had she been turned by Lord Vader? If so, that was a relief, but the possibility nagged in the back of Tyraj's mind that her loyalty might not be quite what it seemed.

He knew from talking with some of the other troopers in the 501st, a few of them clone troopers who'd been serving with Lord Vader since the Clone Wars, that he usually offered Jedi the chance to join him when he confronted them, but almost none of them ever accepted, either attacking him or attempting to flee. Younger Jedi were more likely to accept, but Lord Vader was almost always forced to kill the mystics when he encountered them.

Tyraj put his helmet back on and headed back to his barracks, still thinking to himself. He hoped Malysa was genuinely loyal to the Empire now, but something still bothered him about the entire situation.

He would watch her discreetly, he decided. She had proven herself to be a traitor once before by joining with Lord Vader's enemies, and he would not give her the opportunity to do so twice.

Even if she was his sister.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Apologies for the long gap between updates; my laptop was being repaired and the service company was annoyingly slow to return it to me. I'm working on the next story in this series, '_Starkiller_', and it should hopefully be up sometime within the next couple of weeks. I am also writing chapters of '_One Missed Strike, Part II_' whenever I get a chance, and I'm nearly finished with it at this point.

There is a small reference to one of my other Star Wars stories, a oneshot entitled '_The Hunt_', which you can check out if you're curious. As an explanation, since this is an AU story, Malysa's Jedi Master is(was, actually) this universe's version of '_The Hunt_'s protagonist, since that story takes place in the canon universe. If you still have questions, feel free to ask me and I'll send you a message.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Starkiller

**Starkiller**

_Three weeks after the Battle of Yavin…_

Alone, deep within the innermost parts of the Imperial Star Destroyer _Gorgon_, Darth Nova knelt on the floor of his private meditation sphere and stared into the fiercely glowing blade of his scarlet lightsaber.

He had done this ever since he had first earned the right to construct his own weapon, found it oddly conducive to his dark meditations, as if the deadly blade purged all distractions, all errant thoughts from his mind as quickly and cleanly as the intense fire roiling at the heart of a sun.

This made Darth Nova remember how he had earned his name, the reason why some called him 'Starkiller', the incredible act of destruction he had unleashed and which his master had later repeated in order to end a war with a loathsome enemy. Only they two could have done this thing, and only as Sith. Jedi were too weak, too passive. The Ssi-Ruuk could not be negotiated with, any more than you could ask a black hole to not suck your ship into its maw and crush the life out of you. Lord Vader knew what had to be done, and he had done it without hesitation, as Nova had done before him.

The difference between them was that while Vader took no pleasure in his own act of destruction, Nova had. He _enjoyed_ it. The disgusting lizards hadn't gotten a tenth of what they'd deserved.

Their fear had not lasted nearly long enough.

* * *

Galen Marek's earliest memory was of being scared. No, not scared, he thought, _frightened_. Something big and black and grim was after him, and he knew he shouldn't let it catch him or something bad would happen. It felt like he ran for hours, trying to get away from something he could not see.

The memory, he said to those few he spoke to about it, was so faded by time that he no longer remembered where he had been or what, exactly, he had been running from, only that it was dark around him and he seemed to be in a forest of some kind, echoing with roars and screams as the small boy ran as fast as his short legs could carry him.

Another, more clear memory that seemed to be from about the same time was of him looking up at a tall man dressed all in black, a man with intense blue eyes that, although he was not smiling, seemed to hold some small measure of caring for the young Galen. He was holding out his hand, inviting the young boy to come with him, and although he was still scared, young Galen knew this grim man meant no real harm to him.

He took the hand, and from that point on, Galen Marek was Sith.

The man was Darth Vader, and though the boy did not know it at the time, Galen was Vader's first student. Before that, the Sith Lord had not considered passing on his view of the Force to others, but, as he would later tell the man who eventually became his Sith Apprentice, Galen's power was such that he could not be ignored.

Lord Vader brought the boy to his residence on Coruscant, a palatial building that had once been known as the Jedi Temple but was now empty of the people who had occupied it for so long. There, Vader taught young Galen to touch the power within himself, the swirling current of energy known as the Force.

Darth Vader did not coddle his new student. He forced him to overcome his fears and limitations, one by one, and through years of grueling, endless training, young Galen was hardened into a warrior. He was plunged into the fire, and under Lord Vader's hammer, his impurities and weaknesses were driven out, leaving him a deadly weapon harder than durasteel.

During his years of training, other men and women sometimes taught him, most Jedi who had abandoned their destroyed order and joined with Lord Vader, but some were battle-hardened men that, although they had the same face, seemed different from one another. These clones, high-ranking members of the Emperor's personal legion, taught Galen to be faster, stronger, smarter, running him through a version of the training they had themselves gone through. They had survived a hundred battles, most of them at Lord Vader's side, and they regaled the boy with tales of the Sith Master's daring exploits during the Clone Wars, when he was still known as Anakin Skywalker.

Galen learned not to mention that name one day when he asked Lord Vader why he wasn't called 'Anakin' anymore.

The two of them had been in Lord Vader's office in the Senate building, decorated in black and dark gray, seeming dim and quiet even during the brightest part of the day. Galen had been about thirteen years old, by then one of a hundred students in the rechristened Sith Temple, and as Darth Vader's most promising pupil, he was usually with the Sith Master, even during political business.

Lord Vader had told him to run through the lightsaber forms with his practice saber while he did some datawork, and as Galen moved his training weapon through the patterns drilled into him by Lord Vader and others, he thought of the dashing young man with long hair and a quick smile he'd seen in the old footage the clones had shown him of a few of their battles. If not for the undeniable fact that the face was the same, Galen wouldn't have believed the Anakin Skywalker of the tapes was now Darth Vader, an almost completely different person.

Galen paused and looked up at Lord Vader, sitting at his desk, which was the same color black as the rest of the furnishings, and innocently asked him why he wasn't called Anakin Skywalker anymore.

Darth Vader stopped what he was doing and slowly looked up at his young student with an odd expression, a quality to his features that Galen had never seen before. Though he did not show it outwardly, Lord Vader was very angry, a deep, rumbling anger Galen could feel through the Force. He was suddenly very sorry he had asked.

While he had seen Lord Vader angry a number of times before, it had never been like this. This anger was terrifying on an entirely different level, and it snapped Galen back to his earliest memory, fleeing something large and dark and full of rage. This anger felt very much like that of the thing his far younger self had been fleeing in nearly primal terror, and Galen felt that terror creeping into the back of his mind again, telling him he should flee before it was too late.

Lord Vader was silent for a very long time, a silence that could only be described as ominous, and Galen found he could not move under the power of the Sith Master's glare.

When he finally spoke, he did not shout, nor did he reprimand or punish his student.

"That is no longer my name," he said quietly, a hint of pain hiding behind his still-ominous glare. "You will not mention Anakin Skywalker or anything he did in my presence again, is that understood?"

Galen nodded slowly, still terrified for reasons he couldn't quite explain, even to himself. Lord Vader beckoned him closer, and the boy stepped to the edge of the huge black desk.

"I abandoned that name and left the man associated with it when I became Sith," Lord Vader said, still obviously angry but keeping it under a tight hold. "I was faced with a choice, a crucible, and I plunged myself into the fire to become something entirely different. Anakin Skywalker burned away on the day the Republic fell, and Darth Vader emerged in his place."

Lord Vader met Galen's eyes with his own piercing blue gaze. "One day, young Galen, you too will face a choice, your own crucible, when you must choose forever after whether your path is as Sith or something lesser. On that day, you must burn away the last remnants of your weaker self and become truly Sith. On that day, I will give you your Sith name and declare you my Apprentice, to one day lead the Sith Order in my place."

Galen had known this already, in the back of his mind. It was no secret that he was the most powerful of Lord Vader's students, that much being obvious even now, and it was already expected that when Lord Vader finally named his Sith Apprentice, it would be Galen.

He turned back and resumed his lightsaber drills, wondering just why Lord Vader had become so angry upon the mention of his former name, but knowing better than to ask.

* * *

From that day forward, Galen Marek had a new goal, and he threw himself into it, devoting all his time to becoming the best Sith he could, delving into the deepest recesses of the Archives in search of new and better powers to share with his master so that they could both better accomplish the task of protecting the Empire.

For five more years he carried on this study, until his crucible arrived near the end of the Ssi-Ruuk war.

The Ssi-Ruuk, a reptilian species, had developed technology called 'entechment' that enabled them to drain the life force from living beings and use it as a power source. They used most of their enteched victims to power droid fighters, and with this fleet, they conquered most of their nearby systems, gaining more and more 'power sources' along the way.

Finally, this invasion was brought to Darth Vader's attention, and he decided to do something about it, knowing they would next encroach on the borders of his own Empire. Grand Admiral Thrawn helped him devise a battle strategy, and it was rumored among the troops that Thrawn's mysterious people had fought the lizards in their own space, for the blue-skinned alien brought a vast array of collected data to the table during the planning stages, far too much to have been gathered by even the best intelligence network.

Galen Marek was present during the last of these meetings, standing rigidly behind his master's chair, moving nothing but his eyes as he absorbed the back-and-forth between the Emperor and his highest-ranking officer, regarded as the most senior of even the Grand Admirals due to his unparalleled intelligence and affinity for tactics. Clad in his typical black Imperial uniform with his lightsaber hanging from his belt in plain view, Galen already displayed a threatening image despite his young age.

He met the eyes of the other Sith student there, a girl with long red-gold hair and piercing green eyes, wearing her own black uniform and lightsaber, who stood over Thrawn's shoulder at the other end of the table.

Mara Jade seemed to be just a pretty teenage girl on the outside, but this was a deceptive façade, another of her numerous disguises. She was one of Lord Vader's favorite students, and even at her young age had proved herself an efficient, deadly assassin and unequaled intelligence agent. She was known as the Emperor's Hand, Lord Vader's personal spy whom he sent on missions he didn't tell the rest of the Imperial command about. She and Galen had worked together a number of times on clandestine missions for their master. Only the three people besides herself in this room even knew of her existence, to better maintain her cover on her missions.

Grand Admiral Thrawn gestured to the display on the holoprojector in the center of the table, and it rotated, zooming in on a binary system just beyond the borders of Imperial space.

"This system is of little importance to Imperial interests," Thrawn said in his usual measured, precise tone. His subtly glowing red eyes flicked up to meet the Emperor's through the transparent hologram. "However, I believe the Ssi-Ruuk are establishing a base there from which to strike at the Empire. We have destroyed several of their fleets, and I believe they are preparing a counterattack."

He gestured at the holoprojector again, the lights casting colored shadows on his white uniform, and the display further zoomed in, shifting to long-distance, grainy camera footage that had been sifted through enhancers a number of times but was still faintly fuzzy. It showed a huge number of ships swarming over the planet closest to the double suns, some enormous battleships but most tiny specks that had to be fighters.

Thrawn gestured slightly to Mara Jade standing behind him. "I have reviewed this footage and other information provided by your agent, and it appears that the Ssi-Ruuk have divided their remaining ships into two great fleets; one in this system and one which I have not yet been able to locate. I believe it to be in their home system, defending it against a potential attack by our forces."

Lord Vader nodded, leaning back in his chair as he crossed his arms over his chest. "How many ships would we need to overcome such a force?" he asked.

"Most of the Third and Fourth Fleets," Thrawn replied. "We would need a large number of fighters to counter their own smaller squadrons, but an _Imperial-_class Star Destroyer is more than a match for a Ssi-Ruuk battleship. We need only to provide greater numbers than their own, and," he paused, a faint ghost of a smile flickering along his lips for a moment, "superior tactics, to win such a conflict."

"But," the Grand Admiral continued, resuming his normal serious expression, "committing so much of our fleet to such an endeavor would leave gaps in our defenses, through which the other half of their fleet might attempt to enter the Empire. Due to their technology, they are able to very quickly replenish any losses with captives, so they cannot be allowed to conquer any systems within our borders."

Lord Vader was silent for a long moment. Finally, he looked over at Galen, and the young man quickly approached to hear what his master had to say.

"The Force tells me something important will happen in a battle with this fleet. Take your Star Destroyer squadron there and give assistance to Thrawn's fleet however you can." He met Galen's eyes with a serious look in his own. "Be mindful of the Force, and listen to what it tells you. Find the enemy's weakness and exploit it however you can."

Galen bowed his head in acknowledgment. "Yes, my Master."

Lord Vader next looked to Thrawn. "Take whatever resources you will need to crush this fleet, but see to the defense of the border near the Ssi-Ruuk Imperium before you leave. I will see to the other threats myself."

Thrawn nodded at this, but only he and Vader knew what those 'other threats' were. The two men had been coordinating something for years that only they knew the details of, since Lord Vader had not seen fit to tell even Galen what he and the Grand Admiral were up to along the border near the Unknown Regions. It was big, whatever it was; Galen knew that over the years, they'd quietly diverted a number of Star Destroyers and personnel there until there had to be a sizable fleet wherever they were sending them.

"Jade," Vader continued, glancing up at the girl, "find the rest of the Ssi-Ruuk fleet. I want to know what they're up to."

She nodded sharply. "Yes, my Master."

Galen hid a smirk; that was all the instruction the Emperor's Hand needed. She would probably have the rest of her mission organized by herself before she got to her ship in the hangar several levels below.

Lord Vader stood, his long black cloak swirling with the sudden movement. "Dismissed."

* * *

Galen Marek stood beside Admiral Daala, the commander of his personal Star Destroyer squadron, on the bridge of the squadron's command ship, _Gorgon_. They were a few thousand kilometers from Thrawn's _Chimaera_, watching as the Grand Admiral coordinated the battle with the Ssi-Ruuk fleet.

So far, it was going well, but something seemed off about the battle to Galen, and he kept feeling prickles through the Force, though he wasn't sure what it was he supposed to be seeing.

Daala, a tall woman with a long mane of thick coppery red hair, stood silently beside her Sith commander, hands clasped behind her back as her penetrating green eyes surveyed the battle. Her long hair far exceeded the Imperial regulations, but neither Galen or Lord Vader ever said anything about it; her competence as an officer put them both in an accepting frame of mind for her one deviation from regulations. It had something to do with her time in the academy at Carida, but Galen had never bothered to find out more than that, since he honestly didn't care.

As he watched the holo-displays, Galen passed a gloved hand over his short dark hair, cropped close to his scalp. Thrawn was crushing the enemy fleet, as could be expected, and Galen was beginning to wonder what, if any, assistance he could provide the Grand Admiral in the battle.

The prickling grew stronger, and something compelled Galen to glance over at the section of the display showing the binary suns of the system, now at the closest point in their orbits. As he noticed something there, Galen moved closer to the holoprojector and leaned in.

"What is it, my lord?" Daala asked. Galen was well more than a decade her junior, but Sith were to be respected throughout the military.

Galen zoomed in on the glint between the two suns. "What are those ships doing over there?" he said, more to himself than Daala.

The admiral called for a sensor report on the area Galen had indicated, and once she had it, she approached and manipulated the projector. "Two heavy cruisers and eight full squadrons of enteched fighters," she said, looking through the display at the Sith. "Probably reserves, though with the pounding Thrawn's giving them, they should be sending those ships in any minute."

"But they're not," Galen said, feeling the strong pull through the Force more than ever. "They're up to something…"

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the Ssi-Ruuk ships spread out in their formation, leaving a large gap in the center. A roiling solar flare interfered with the view for a moment, but it cleared just in time for the camera to catch a dozen more heavy cruisers and a swarm of fighters reverting from hyperspace.

Galen leaped over to the communications board. "Open a channel to the _Chimaera_!" he barked. "Fast!'

The comm officer quickly obeyed, and the face of the _Chimaera_'s comm officer appeared. "Get me Thrawn!" Galen said before the young man could answer.

A moment later, Thrawn's blue-skinned face and the white shoulders of his uniform appeared on the small screen. _"What is it, my lord?_" he asked, his tone polite but making it clear that the interruption had better be for a good reason.

"The lizards have just sent in another fleet!" Galen said, punching buttons on the comm console as he sent the Grand Admiral the footage he'd just watched. Due to their position, high above the battle, the _Gorgon_'s sensors could reach an area unavailable to the rest of the fleet.

Thrawn's red eyes flicked back and forth over his own screen as he quickly looked over the data. "_This nearly doubles their fleet,_" he said. "_Interesting; they waited until my fleet had been depleted by theirs before sending in reinforcements. I believe their strategy was to wear my fleet down with one half before sending the other in fresh to finish us off._" He glanced up at Galen, meeting his eyes through the transmission. "_Recommendations?_"

Galen thought for a moment, and then a slow smile spread over his face as he recalled a story Lord Vader had once told him about the ancient Sith Lord Naga Sadow.

"I'll handle this," he said, calculations whirling through his head. "Keep going with this fleet, and I'll handle the other one."

Though he was careful not to let it show on his face, Thrawn was either very surprised or very interested. _"Might I ask what you are planning, my lord?_" he inquired, glancing briefly off-screen at something happening on his own bridge. "_We are now greatly outnumbered, and our own reinforcements are several hours away."_

Galen just grinned wolfishly. "We're not going to be needing them, Admiral," he said confidently. "We have the Force."

With that, he switched off the channel and turned to Daala. "Send the _Basilisk_ and the _Manticore_ to Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet, and tell the _Hydra_ to hold position here."

Daala cocked a disbelieving eyebrow. "We're going by ourselves, my lord?"

Galen just smiled again, the grin of a predator about to pounce on unsuspecting prey. "We need speed for this, Admiral, not firepower. Tell the engineering department that we're going to need all the speed they can give us."

The look she gave him nearly mirrored Thrawn's earlier expression, suspecting him of either being insane or having some trick up his sleeve. But, she knew better than to countermand the orders of a Sith who appeared to still be in command of his faculties, and so obeyed.

The _Gorgon_ rushed for the space between the binary suns at top speed in what seemed to be a suicidal charge, and Galen could almost sense the surprise and contempt of the enemy commanders. They didn't even fire for a few moments, probably wondering just what in all nine Corellian hells had gotten into this lone Star Destroyer's commander.

The radiation from the suns began to interfere with their sensors, and static hissed through the displays, causing more than a few of them to flicker. This was the reason Galen had ordered the _Hydra_ to hold position; they could relay the _Gorgon_'s communications to the rest of the fleet from their coordinates.

As the _Gorgon_ soared right at the enemy formation, Galen ordered all batteries to open fire with everything they had. The enemy ships fired back, but by then _Gorgon_ was going fast enough that the enemy gunners were having a hard time locking on. The shields absorbed those that managed to hit the Star Destroyer.

"Keep us steady for a few moments, Admiral," Galen said, moving so that he faced the majority of the Ssi-Ruuk fleet, and stretched out his arms.

_Size means nothing_, he thought to himself, remembering one of Lord Vader's lessons. _It's the same as moving pebbles; no different at all._

He let his eyes fall half-closed as he reached deep into the Force and summoned an enormous amount of power. He sent dozens of tendrils of Force energy questing out for the two nearest battleships, the two closest in the formation.

Galen took a deep breath, and when he was sure his hold was secure, he opened his eyes and placed each hand in line with one of the battleships. When he moved his hands slightly apart, incredibly, the two huge enemy ships moved, also, through nothing detectable by sensors. He could sense Daala's surprise next to him, but in the next moment, he blocked out all distractions.

He halted the drift, then, seizing both ships again, smashed them together with colossal force. Galen could sense the shock and fear of every officer on the bridge as they watched the Ssi-Ruuk ships collide with enough momentum to completely obliterate them both, huge roiling fireballs consuming much of the wreckage as the munitions and other critical systems ruptured in the grossly unnatural event.

"I've…" Daala said in shock beside him. "I've never seen anything like that before!"

Galen breathed deeply as he continued to draw upon the Force. "That was just to get their attention," he murmured, looking out at the suddenly confused enemy fleet.

"That's right," he said softly. "Come get me. Send everything you have."

As if prompted, the enemy fleet surged after the rapidly fleeing _Gorgon_, moving almost as one in their determination to eradicate this inexplicable new weapon of the Empire.

"My lord?" Daala said, the smallest hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Let them chase us," Galen replied, his voice strained. "Head between the suns."

As the Star Destroyer shot with all the speed its engines could summon between the binary suns, the Ssi-Ruuk surged after them like a pack of beasts, nearly colliding with one another in their angry swarm after the lone Imperial vessel.

Galen reached deep into both suns with the Force, feeling it roar through him like a river of fire. He was merely the conduit, he knew; the Force could do so much that it was impossible to imagine its limits.

When much of the fleet was engaged in the pursuit, between the two suns, Galen struck. He pushed deeper and deeper into the swirling plasma, and then, feeling like his skin was blistering from the heat and the power swirling through him, Galen pulled _out_.

A loud groan of effort slipped out between his clenched teeth as the surface of the twin suns began to boil, and with a suddenness that made several of the officers on the _Gorgon_'s bridge gasp with surprise and fear, two huge solar flares, thousands of kilometers long, erupted out of the surface of both suns in a gargantuan imitation of a volcanic eruption, stretching out like ragged fingers of fire.

As Galen kept pulling, a thousand kilometers quickly became a hundred thousand, then nearly a million, and the two unnaturally long flares met and smashed together right in the middle of the Ssi-Ruuk fleet, completely obliterating them in a storm of plasma so hot it vaporized the lizards' ships before the actual matter even reached them.

The two long arms of fire met for a moment, like lovers touching hands, then slowly began to fall back under the gravity of their respective suns.

As Galen let his hands drop, exhausted, he could sense the terror of many a crewman scattered about the Imperial vessel as they realized that their Sith commander had done this through the Force.

Exhausted but exhilarated, Galen turned to Daala and wiped the sheen of sweat from his face. "Send a message to Thrawn," he said, seized with the excitement of what he had just done. He needed more, needed to feel the Force flowing through him like that again while he was still capable of handling it.

"Tell him to disengage and get the fleet to the edge of the system. His only task now is to keep them from escaping."

"What are you going to do?" Daala asked, still so shocked by what she had seen that protocol was forgotten. Galen dismissed it; she hadn't seen anything yet.

His lips pulled back from his teeth in an almost feral snarl of dark anticipation. He knew both by Daala's surprised look and his own level of awareness that his eyes had turned to a burning yellow from the depth of his plunge into the Dark Side.

This was his crucible, Galen knew. Today would be the last day he lived as Galen Marek; there was no way he could touch this kind of power and emerge from the other side the same person as before. Lord Vader often spoke of how it felt to him to touch the Force, and Galen imagined it felt something like this to his Sith Master.

The fires of this system's suns would burn away Galen Marek and leave in his place a Sith Lord, one worthy to be Lord Vader's heir. The Force would show him the way.

"Head for the edge of the system, sublight speed only," he said, his voice nearly a growl now with the strength of his rage.

The officers around him rushed to obey, and he fell back into the Force, drawing on it like never before, amplifying his earlier connection a hundredfold. He seized the hearts of the suns themselves, pouring every bit of his power into his hold.

He ripped; he tore; he snatched and he smashed, speeding up the reaction in the hearts of both stars far beyond their natural pace. He laughed and he screamed, exulting in the unimaginable power flowing through his body and at his command. There was nothing, _nothing_ he could not do.

Finally, as the telltale signs began to appear on the sensor boards, he heard the officers around him shouting in panic and awe, saying out loud what he already knew, what was now an eventuality, a calamity, an unstoppable force that could not now be reversed. The world seemed to fade away into a white haze as he pulled more and more, now screaming uncontrollably from the incredible agony of the energy surging through him; it hurt like nothing ever had before, hurt so much he thought he might go mad, but it was also the purest bliss, the most intense pleasure he had yet experienced.

Finally, as he heard Daala barking orders as if from a very great distance away, he sensed that he had accomplished what he set out to do, and he let go of the power. It seemed to take his very life with it, and he dropped to the deckplates in a heap before anyone could catch him, his clothes actually smoking from the residual effects of the power he had channeled.

He heard the order given to jump to hyperspace, and then he heard no more, for he slipped into the great black abyss of unconsciousness.

* * *

When he awoke, days later, the first thing he saw was Darth Vader himself standing over his bed in the medical bay. The Sith Master was actually smiling, something he hardly ever did.

His deep blue eyes shone with pride, and as he stepped closer, Lord Vader clasped his hands behind his back over his cloak.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

Vader's first student drew upon the Force as he rose from the bed, but he found he could not maintain the strength, and he unsteadily dropped to one knee before his master.

"You have done something no other user of the Force, Sith or Jedi, could have done," Lord Vader said, his pride and his satisfaction abundantly clear.

The apprentice had never heard his master express such pride in him before, and through his fog of disorientation and pain, he felt his scalp tingle with his own pride and happiness.

"There can be no other," Lord Vader continued. "Only you are worthy to become Sith Apprentice, and one day lead the Order in my place. Only you have the power to learn the deepest mysteries of the Force at my side."

He looked down at his student. "I sense the change within you. The last remnants of the frightened little boy you were when I found you are gone. You are now a Sith Lord, the same as I. You will be called Darth…" he paused for a moment, thinking it over, "Nova."

The apprentice nodded slowly. It was a fitting name for the person he now was; as with his master before him, Galen Marek was gone, and Darth Nova had taken his place.

* * *

Darth Nova quickly became known as 'the Starkiller' among the troops, and as the nickname amused him, he adopted it as another Sith title. It served to remind those who served under him what he was capable of.

He and his master discussed the battle at length as Nova recovered, and as the younger Sith Lord described what he had done, Darth Vader had thought it over carefully. He was, he told his apprentice, positive he was capable of doing the same thing.

As it turned out, he was right. The Ssi-Ruuk war became a total rout under the leadership of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the two Sith Lords, until they had driven the lizards from every corner of the galaxy back to their home system, where the Ssi-Ruuk gathered the last ragged remnants of their fleet for a final stand.

From the bridge of his flagship, the newly completed Super Star Destroyer _Executor_, Darth Vader offered the Ssi-Ruuk Imperium the chance to surrender, under the terms that they destroy all of their entechment technology and any blueprints for the machines, and also never again leave their home system with the intent to conquer.

The lizards responded by charging, weapons blazing.

Grimly, Lord Vader commanded the rest of the fleet to retreat to the edge of the system and his own ship to pull back and set the calculations for the jump in order.

Many of the officers on the bridge crew later reported that it seemed the very air itself crackled with the Emperor's power as he stretched out his arms and became still as a statue for several long minutes. It was almost painful to be within several meters of him, and his face was wracked with concentration and apparent pain.

Slowly, the star at the heart of the Ssi-Ruuvi home system began to behave oddly, according to the sensor officer's readings. But then, as the reaction built and it became apparent what was about to happen, Admiral Ozzel started to order a retreat. Vader silenced him with a glare, then returned to his task.

Several moments later, Lord Vader sagged against the bulkhead next to him in exhaustion. "Now," he said in Ozzel's direction, a dangerous edge to his tone, "you may retreat."

The _Executor_ leaped to hyperspace and emerged at a safe distance along with the rest of the fleet. There, every man, woman, or alien to whom gender could not be applied aboard the massed Star Destroyers bore witness to a sight not one of them ever forgot.

The star at the heart of the Ssi-Ruuk system went supernova in a cataclysmic explosion that completely obliterated everything in the system, making the Ssi-Ruuk extinct in an instant. The explosion was so bright that the fleet's viewscreens were darkened near to opacity and still the light was too bright to look at directly.

In the successive days, as word spread about what had happened, the Imperial Senate erupted in outrage over what they called 'excessive measures' and demanded that Lord Vader reveal what weapon he and his newly confirmed apprentice had used to destroy the two systems' suns. Lord Vader responded by publicly choking one of the more vocal detractors of his actions until the man turned blue, then releasing him so that he collapsed, gasping, at the Emperor's feet.

In a dangerous tone, he informed the rest of the Senate that his word was final and that he did not have to answer to them for anything. This was _not_ the Republic, he reminded them, and ultimately _they_ answered to _him_, not the other way around.

"The Senate's responsibility is to aid the Emperor in governing the Empire," Vader said from the central podium of the Galactic Senate chamber, his detractor still gasping for breath on the floor beside him. "Emperor Palpatine saw that the corrupt bureaucracy of the old Republic was too mired in intrigue and their own interests to serve the people of the galaxy, so he implemented the policies on which I base my rule."

He looked out over the Senate with the dark glare that was one of the most recognized signs that whoever he was talking to would be wise to listen to him if they wanted to keep breathing.

"My decisions are final," Lord Vader repeated, a threatening edge in his voice. "I do not have to justify myself to this body, but I will tell you that these 'extreme measures' were not undertaken lightly."

He leaned forward and uttered a statement that terrified almost everyone listening, both in the chamber and on the HoloNet.

"I used no weapon on the Ssi-Ruuvi star. I used only the power of the Force, the same as my apprentice. Those who oppose my rule would do well to remember this."

To first stunned silence, then a cacophonous uproar, Lord Vader retracted the central podium into the floor of the Senate rotunda, and made no further statements.

Darth Nova and his master watched a bit of the news coverage, and while Lord Vader's face remained expressionless, the Starkiller smirked at the back-and-forth of the media, discussing in their forums if it was really true that the Emperor and his Sith Apprentice had the power to ignite stars by themselves, and more importantly, if they would do this to any systems that dissented against the Empire. Such a weapon, the braver pundits ventured, showed that the Emperor was nothing more than a tyrant, using fear to hold the people of his Empire in line.

Sitting in Lord Vader's office, Nova gestured at the holoprojector. "Fools. They should be terrified. At least now they have the proper respect for our power."

Darth Vader said nothing for a moment, but waited until his apprentice looked in his direction before meeting his eyes with a deadly serious expression.

"We must only use this new power in the direst of circumstances," he said gravely. "I will not be known as a man who eradicates his opponents on a whim." He stood and began to walk around the perimeter of his office, hands clasped behind his back.

"Not only does this power place an incredible strain on the body," he said, gesturing to Nova with one hand, "as you well know, but it is such an extreme measure, as the Senate rightfully called it, that we cannot use it unless there is no other conceivable alternative."

He stopped, looking out of the expansive window at the frenzied traffic beyond and the enormous skyscrapers of the Coruscant skyline. "The people are right to fear us," Vader said quietly. "Perhaps now this Rebellion will reconsider its pointless uprising."

Grimly, Nova thought to himself that it was more probable that the stubborn Rebels would fight all the more fiercely now. As it turned out, he was exactly right.

* * *

Deep within the _Gorgon_, Nova ceased his meditations on the past, slowly bringing himself back to the present. It had been several weeks since the disastrous Battle of Yavin, where a group of Rebels in fighters had humbled the Emperor's mighty flagship. Nova had had no contact with his master in that time, and had been forced to draw his own conclusions on what had happened there.

Most interesting was the news of a Luke Skywalker, touted by some as a possible relative of Anakin. Lord Vader himself had issued a statement denouncing the Rebellion for using the name of his former self in an attempt to gain sympathy and create an air of legitimacy for their terrorist activities, and placed an incredibly high bounty on the young Jedi's head, telling the citizens of the Empire that it was their duty to turn him in if they spotted him or any of his compatriots.

A low, insistent buzzing alerted Darth Nova to the fact that someone was trying to contact him on his private comm. Recognizing the code from the pattern of the buzzing, he rushed off immediately to answer it.

The holoprojector in the next room flickered to life, displaying in larger-than-life size the head and shoulders of Darth Vader, supreme ruler of the galaxy. Nova kept his head bowed, seeing only the bottom of the image.

"_Rise_," Lord Vader said, his voice echoing slightly from the chamber's speakers.

Nova stood and met his master's remaining eye through the transmission, the other covered by a black patch. Nova was frankly astonished that someone of Darth Vader's skill and power could be bested by a gaggle of disorganized Rebels, even if this Luke Skywalker was all the reports claimed him to be.

"What is your bidding, my Master?" Nova asked, clasping his hands behind his back.

"_You have a new target,_" the Emperor said. "_A young Rebel named Luke Skywalker. You are to bring him to me alive and unharmed."_

The Starkiller hid his reaction beneath an expressionless mask. He had been expecting this, and in fact looked forward to hunting down another Jedi, especially one like this new Skywalker.

"Who is he, Master?" Nova asked. He had heard some, from the news reports, but he wanted to hear it from his master.

"_That is none of your concern_," Lord Vader said with a trace of irritation. _"Your mission now is to find the Rebels and bring me Skywalker._"

Nova bowed his head. "I will obey, my Master."

Vader's image nodded once. _"Good. I am certain you will accomplish this in short order._" He leaned forward, glaring balefully at his apprentice with his single remaining eye. "_Do not harm him, Nova. If you do, I will end you._"

Nova again bowed his head in acknowledgment, feeling the slightest pressure at his throat. "As you say, Master," he said, knowing the Sith Master meant every word.

Whoever Luke Skywalker really was, he was very important to Lord Vader for some reason. Darth Nova was suddenly very interested in knowing why.

"_Whatever resources you will need are at your command,_" Lord Vader continued. "_Do not disappoint me._"

With that, he cut the communication from his end, and his image vanished.

The Starkiller turned and strode to his inner chamber again, where he spent a long time gazing at the mural that covered the entire spherical wall. It was a still image of the twin suns he had ignited, taken from the _Gorgon_'s external camera recordings of the battle. It had been arranged so that it seemed he floated in empty space, watching the double suns die under the power of the Force.

He looked forward to capturing this Luke Skywalker and helping the Emperor break him. From what he could tell of the boy, the two Sith Lords would either be able to convert the young Jedi to their cause or they would be forced to kill him. He was too powerful to be allowed loose in the galaxy fighting for the opposing side.

Privately, in thoughts he kept firmly walled off from anyone but himself, Darth Nova hoped events would flow down the latter path. No one but he and Lord Vader deserved to have this kind of power.

Perhaps not even Vader.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: Yes, the Starkiller is very deep in the Dark Side in this AU; he tends to ignore his master's lessons on balance, as he's found that the Dark Side gives him the power he wants. How will this affect the rest of the story? Well, you'll just have to keep reading, won't you? ;)

Next, we fast-forward a year to _The Emperor's Hand_, the tale of Mara Jade. As the Rebellion searches for a new base, the Empire's deadliest agent reflects on her situation, and how she came to be here, living among her enemies, trying to sort out her unexpected feelings for her master's son in the process. Till then, thanks for reading!


	4. The Emperor's Hand

**The Emperor's Hand**

_One year after the Battle of Yavin…_

Mara Jade sat alone in one of the lounges of _Home One_. The room was dark, lit only by the faint silver pinpricks of the endless star-field that she could see through the bubble of the observation dome above her. The star-field stretched off into infinite blackness, seeming like a jeweled blanket draped around the warship. Space this far out had an empty feel to it, but the innumerable sparkling points scattered throughout the velvety darkness burned brightly, islands of light in the sea of black.

The Rebel flagship was stationary for once, a rare break in the never-ending flight from the Empire. _Home One_ and the rest of the Rebel fleet had paused for a few hours, taking a breath from the chase.

Of course, if it weren't for her presence here, the Rebels might have more of these precious breaks. Although her 'friends' with the Rebellion didn't suspect a thing, Mara was, in fact, a servant of that Empire, a spy within their ranks. Even now, she knew, she should be finding ways to send information to her master, Darth Vader, so that he could capture the Rebels and end this chase. But lately, her communication with her master had been rather scarce.

Had it really been six months since she'd left him a transmission? Mara leaned back in her chair, gazing up at the star-field, and wondered which of those stars her master was currently orbiting, whether on a planet or his massive flagship.

Well, she reflected, there really hadn't been any good chances to do so, after all. She was under deep cover and could not afford to compromise her position, right? Naturally. She was just biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to aid her master.

As she reflected on her purpose here, Mara found herself drifting back to the first time she had met her master, back to her earliest memories.

* * *

Mara Jade's first memory was of being lost in a crowd of people. Tall, unfamiliar forms pressed in around her on all sides, shoving her this way and that as the tiny girl tried to navigate the sea of life forms. The noise of a thousand beings from a hundred different planets swelled around her in a horrible cacophony of gibberish. She was alone, with no anchor of anything, any presence she was accustomed to, adrift in the tide of people, and for the only time she could remember, Mara Jade cried in fear.

Looking back, she thought she couldn't have been more than three or four at the time, and it still nagged at her that her parents hadn't been there with her. It still bothered her that they wouldn't come make her feel safe, why they weren't looking for their little girl, lost and alone with tears streaming down her face.

No one in the crowd paid her the slightest bit of notice, and after what felt like hours of wandering, being jostled about by the crowd, little Mara had finally found a quiet spot that was out of the way where she sat down and waited for someone to come find her. From thinking about it later, she thought she had perhaps been at a terminal of some kind, a spaceport or some other sort of travel station. Most of what she remembered about the place was that it was loud, and smelled of exhaust and the mixed odors of the crowd. It terrified her, and she curled into a ball with her back against something metal and cold, waiting for someone to come find her.

Eventually, as the crowd kept moving, a shadow blocked out the sun overhead.

Mara looked up to see a tall, broad-shouldered man standing above her, his outline distorted by the long black cloak that fell from his shoulders. Her eyes widened as she looked up at the silent dark figure above her, his face obscured by the shadows cast by the sun at his back. She felt a nearly overwhelming sense of power radiating from the man, and her body tensed.

She was ready to flee from the frightening dark man, but something held her back, a sense that although he was powerful, that power was also held under control, and that it would not hurt her, perhaps it would even protect her. Mara knew now that he had touched her mind through the Force, but to a frightened little girl it had felt more like she had been scooped up into the strong arms of her father.

Finally, the man knelt, and she saw his face for the first time. He didn't smile, but his blue eyes seemed kind, though he seemed sad, too. She still clearly recalled the first thing he said to her.

"Don't cry."

The words were gentle, yet they carried an unmistakable note of command. So, she stopped crying and wiped her nose, looking at this big man with intense blue eyes who both scared her and made her not be scared at the same time.

The man held out a hand. "You don't have to be scared anymore. Come with me, and you'll never be lost again."

Oddly, Mara thought she could trust this man, even though she had never seen him before. She knew he was telling the truth, somehow, that he really did want to help her, to make her feel safe when all these other people ignored her and pushed her out of the way.

She made her decision in that moment. Standing up, Mara Jade wiped tears from her face for the last time. She took Darth Vader's hand and never cried again.

* * *

The hiss of the door opening and soft, almost hesitant footsteps behind her brought Mara back to the present. She glanced back and saw a figure silhouetted in the doorway by the light in the hall beyond.

Judging from the long, wavy hair and the loose-fitting robes, it could be no one other than Luke Skywalker. He had let his hair grow out over the last year, and whether he was doing it deliberately or not, he now looked more like the Anakin Skywalker of the Clone Wars era than ever before.

But there was one obvious difference; his eyes, though they were the same color as his father's, held a sense of innocence still, and also a deep-seated innate gentleness that Mara had never seen in his father. If Anakin's eyes had ever been like his son's, the events of his life had hardened them long years ago.

Mara shook her head slightly. What was she thinking? She was a loyal servant of the Empire, and the only reason she was getting close to Luke Skywalker was so she could turn him in to his father, her master. Her master who had rescued her when no one else even seemed to notice her existence. The man who had taught her that she didn't have to be afraid. It was just his reflection that she appreciated in his son.

"There something you need, farm-boy?" she asked, using her teasing nickname for the young man.

There he went, blushing whenever she talked to him. Even if Han Solo teased him about it incessantly, she found it a bit endearing, in a cute puppy-dog kind of way. A cute puppy that she was going to turn over to his enemy…

_Focus, Jade_, she reminded herself.

"I… well… ah," Luke stuttered, embarrassed.

Mara smirked. "Well, go on. Out with it, Skywalker. I don't have all day here."

Luke brought one hand up to rub the back of his neck. What made this so amusing was that he'd faced down uncountable numbers of Imperial troops virtually without fear, pulled off daring rescues and other almost unbelievable exploits, and yet he still stumbled all over himself when trying to talk to the girl he liked.

Mara leaned back in her chair and adopted a patient expression. What she kept to herself was that she privately found it just as unnerving to talk to him. Luke reminded her so much of his father, but at the same time he was so different that she couldn't believe he was Darth Vader's son.

"Well… Admiral Ackbar is organizing some scouting missions to look for a new base," he began, visibly forcing himself to relax his posture, "since the Empire has found our last couple more quickly than we'd anticipated."

What he didn't know was that he was talking to the reason why those bases had been found so quickly. Mara found it a very strange feeling to live and work with people she was, at least in theory, supposed to be trying to kill. It felt almost like betrayal, but that was ridiculous, wasn't it?

"I've been asked to choose a crew for my own mission," Luke continued, "and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go with me."

Mara couldn't resist a bit of teasing. "Shouldn't you be making that an order, _Commander_ Skywalker?"

Luke blushed, exactly the reaction she'd been hoping for. "I… well…"

Mara laughed as she stood and playfully clapped his shoulder. "Sure, I'll go with you, Skywalker. Who else is going, Solo and his furry friend?"

Luke shook his head. "No, Han and Chewie are off on a run right now. We'll be taking a scout ship."

Mara smirked again. "I don't know why Solo keeps playing at smuggling. He's as much of a Rebel as you, even if he doesn't want to admit it."

"I don't know, either," Luke replied, shrugging. "That's just Han, I guess."

It finally caught in Mara's mind that this man was supposed to be her enemy. What was she doing, acting like his friend?

It was all part of her cover, another part of her mind offered. If these Rebels thought her one of them, they would be less likely to realize she was an Imperial spy.

Yes, that was as good an explanation as any.

"So," she said, more to distract herself from her persistent train of thought than anything else, "who else is going?"

"A pilot, named Dak," Luke replied. "The scout ship's only big enough for three. We're leaving this afternoon at sixteen-hundred hours."

Mara gave him a teasing salute. "Yes sir, Commander Skywalker," she said, smirking again. Luke blushed again, and she laughed. He was just too much fun to mess with.

She gently punched his shoulder as she left the room. "See you in the hangar, farm-boy," she said, walking off down the hallway.

As she drew closer to her quarters, a more serious part of her mind took over, the assassin, the sniper, the Imperial agent trained by Darth Vader himself. This mission would be a perfect opportunity, the agent part of her mind insisted. Alone on a scouting mission with Luke, she could easily overpower the pilot, sedate Skywalker, and take the scout ship directly to her master. It would more than make up for neglecting her mission for so long.

But, the other part of her mind, the part that had slowly been making friends with the Rebels, the part that had been putting off sending another report for months, an almost unforgivably long time for even a deep-cover agent, quietly objected, not wanting to see Luke end up in Vader's clutches.

Mara knew what would happen if she brought Luke to his father; she had watched him train others, and had been trained herself. She knew Vader's methods; his son would go into the training Luke Skywalker but come out someone else entirely.

* * *

"Release your anger!"

Darth Vader sent a powerful Force shove out at the young Mara Jade, now in her early teens, and knocked her sprawling across the floor of the training room.

She got to her feet, but he sent out another wave and threw her back into the wall with painful, jarring force. Her training saber slipped from her fingers and clattered away, and he swooped in, his own training saber swinging down in a long arc that would meet her shoulder.

Mara dove out of the way, twisting under another pull of the Force from her master, and emerged from her roll with her weapon in hand. She ignited the white practice blade, angling it in a defensive pattern as Lord Vader jumped over, swinging his weapon in a blindingly fast offensive series of slashes.

She knew what he was doing; he was trying to frustrate her into becoming so angry she touched the Dark Side and let it influence her during battle. But, some inner part of her didn't want to.

Combining lightsaber attacks with a barrage of Force shoves and pulls, Lord Vader charged in a whirlwind, trying to overwhelm her.

"Anger can make you stronger," he said as she tumbled to the floor again, nursing a good-sized bruise on her upper arm. "It gives you power," Vader continued. "If you allow yourself to become angry with your opponent, to hate him, you will find a reserve of energy that will let you overpower him."

Mara shouted in frustration as he tripped her with the Force when she tried to get up, knocking her on her face again. Furious, she leaped to her feet and threw her hand out toward her teacher, intending to shove him back.

Instead, twisting bolts of lightning leaped from her fingers, crashing into Lord Vader with all the strength of her frustration and anger. Further aggravating her, he blocked them all with his lightsaber, skillfully sweeping the blade to intercept each bolt.

"Good," he said, smiling broadly. "Very good."

But nothing felt good about it. Mara was surprised that she had used Force Lightning, as that had not at all been what she intended to do. Conflicting emotions swirled within her, confusing her, and she found herself disoriented momentarily.

"But, you must balance your anger," Vader continued, seemingly not noticing her confusion. "You cannot allow your anger to control you; to immerse yourself that deeply into the Dark Side will eventually turn you into a monster, a mindless animal seeking only more violence."

Calming down, Mara nodded, still trying to process what had happened.

"The Light Side of the Force brings calm, serenity," said Lord Vader. "With it, you can control your anger, make it a tool to serve you, your servant instead of your master. But," he warned, raising a hand to emphasize his point, "as with the Dark Side, too much of an immersion in the Light can weaken you. If you allow yourself to rise too high into the Light Side, all aggression is purged, and you are left unwilling to take the necessary measures to act."

His features adopted an expression that could almost be described as a sneer, though not quite. "The old Jedi Order claimed once that the Dark Side was clouding their perceptions, diminishing their ability to use the Force." Lord Vader gestured to himself. "They found me, and thought I was the fulfillment of a prophecy, the Chosen One to bring balance to the Force."

Mara nodded as she sat down on the floor, crossing her legs beneath her. She adjusted the legs of her workout shorts as she waited for Lord Vader to continue.

He shrugged his broad shoulders beneath his own sleeveless black shirt, glancing out of the wide window at one end of the room at the Coruscant traffic outside. Finally, he resumed his lesson.

"The Jedi claimed that somehow the Sith's use of the Dark Side was affecting their own powers, and that I, in destroying the Sith, would bring the Force back into balance. I do not believe this to be the truth. I think the Jedi's weakening was due to their own unwillingness to touch the more powerful aspects of the Force. They were weakening themselves."

He held his hands out on front of himself. "I am right-handed," he said, flexing the mechanical fingers of that hand. "Suppose I were to cut off my left hand simply because I use it less often. Would such a decision be foolish?"

"Of course," Mara replied. "You have two hands for a reason; only using one would handicap you."

Vader leaned forward slightly, an approving smile quirking his lips slightly. "Exactly. The Force is the same; using only one side is just as foolish as only using one of your hands."

"Then what was the prophecy supposed to mean?" Mara asked. Her master had never discussed this particular subject with her before. "How are you supposed to bring the Force into balance?"

Lord Vader gestured to the training room around them, and by extension the rest of the Sith Temple, which had once been the Jedi Temple. "I do not know what the prophecy was originally intended to mean," he said. "But I believe I have finally found the correct way to use the Force: use both sides equally, making use of their respective qualities. The Dark Side holds tremendous advantage in battle, as it greatly strengthens a wielder, but the Light Side has its own advantages, such as healing."

"Take the lightsaber as an example," he said, pulling his regular weapon from its place on his belt. "Suppose I was to use this to kill a Senator who opposed one of my decisions as Emperor. Would that be good or evil?"

"Evil," Mara replied. "You cannot kill someone for no other reason than because they disagree with you."

Vader nodded. "But suppose I was to then use this same weapon to block a stray blaster shot that had been about to hit an innocent bystander. Is that good or evil?"

"Good," Mara said. "The bystander was not involved, and you should not let him be killed for no reason."

Lord Vader tossed his lightsaber from one hand to the other. "The exact same weapon was used in both scenarios," he said. "Is the weapon itself good, or evil?"

"Neither," said Mara. "It all matters on how you, its owner, use it."

"Exactly." He looked down at her as if sharing some exciting secret, almost smiling. "The Force itself is neither good nor evil, Mara," he said. "It simply is. Good or evil comes from the way it is wielded."

Mara nodded uncertainly. She wasn't sure if she really believed this or not, since she only seemed able to access the Dark Side when using the Force for some selfish or violent purpose. Lord Vader's lesson seemed to be contradictory to how she herself perceived the Force. She dismissed her concerns; Lord Vader knew what he was doing, after all, so she probably just didn't understand enough about the Force yet.

Lord Vader dismissed her to go and meditate on what he had said then, but try as she might, the young Mara was unable to reconcile the Sith Master's lesson with what she felt.

* * *

Her questions were eventually pushed aside in the face of much more intensive training; Lord Vader needed a capable agent, and he needed one soon. He advanced Mara's training, focusing more on combat and stealth lessons, as well as infiltration techniques to more easily blend in with whatever situation she found herself. Naturally proficient in such things, Mara quickly became an exceptional agent, and before long was named as the Emperor's Hand, Darth Vader's personal agent to whom he trusted the most clandestine and sensitive missions. Her very existence became a secret, and none knew her true identity but the Emperor, his Sith Apprentice, and Grand Admiral Thrawn, Vader's most trusted officer.

The Force became just another tool in her arsenal, and for years Mara gave no further thought to the relationship between Dark Side and Light Side. When a situation arose where she needed to use the Force, she simply used it however was necessary to complete her mission.

She continued in this pattern for years, until the fateful mission to Alderaan, where she was assigned to confirm the existence of the suspected Rebel cell there, and, if present, proceed to infiltrate it.

Mara Jade used her real name as her alias in this mission, since it was untraceable to the Empire; she did not officially exist in any registration documents, anyway, and even if she was referenced in any communiqués between Vader and Thrawn, both simply referred to her as 'the agent', and were never more specific.

She chose her own mission parameters, and when selecting a name for her Rebel alias, something prodded her to use her own. She thought it might have been the Force, but gave no more thought to it as she set up the rest of the mission.

Mara traveled to Alderaan as a student transferring to the university, and quickly established herself as a vocal detractor of the Empire, joining in with the protest groups university students were wont to form. Before long, she was quietly approached by a recruiter for the Rebellion.

The recruiter, a woman named Winter, asked her if she wanted to do more to oppose 'the tyranny of the Empire', and in her guise as an impassioned student, Mara readily agreed. Her constructed background held up against the thorough check by the Rebels, since it even went so far as to provide a number of references and 'family members' -all Imperial agents- to confirm her documentation and story.

Mara was made an official member of the cell of the Alliance to Restore the Republic on Alderaan, but to her frustration, she was able to do little more than confirm the cell's existence to her master, as the Organa family never gave any indication that they were in any way affiliated.

Winter was a servant in the Organa household, Mara knew, and likely operated directly under Bail Organa himself, but again, there was never enough evidence to conclusively prove his ties to the Rebellion.

Publicly, the Organa family remained vocal, but still law-abiding, detractors of the Empire and Lord Vader. Mara spent more than a year trying to prove that they were high-ranking members of the Rebellion, but was never successful. She never actually met any of them, and so instead set about gathering all the information she was able on the Rebellion in general. Due to the way the Alliance was structured, each cell knowing next to nothing about the rest of the organization, this was extremely difficult.

Lord Vader commanded her to remain in deep cover on Alderaan and participate in whatever missions she was assigned, telling her to be patient.

Eventually, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker came to Alderaan to free Leia Organa and the rest of her family, and Mara's mission became both more interesting and more complicated.

She had been told much about Kenobi by Lord Vader, who hated his former teacher more than any other individual she knew of, blaming Kenobi for the losses he had suffered during the fall of the old Republic. Mara had been surprised to find Kenobi almost nothing like Vader's descriptions; he appeared to be fairly pleasant, patient with his apprentice Luke, and, while still devoted to the old Jedi Order, seemed to be a good man.

Mara was privately puzzled at this, since this was the first sustained contact she had ever had with a Jedi. She'd helped Galen Marek, later Darth Nova, assassinate one once, but that had been long-distance support; she'd wounded the Jedi with a sniper rifle, distracting him long enough for Galen to finish him off.

There had been several opportunities during the escape from the palace to allow the Imperial troops to capture the Rebels, but Mara's instincts told her that Kenobi and his apprentice would take the Organas to the secret Rebel base; planting a tracking device on their ship to let Lord Vader follow them would prove much faster and more effective than torturing the information out of them.

Mara's disguised beacon allowed the _Executor_ to track the _Millennium Falcon_ to Yavin, though the Rebels were somehow able to defeat the mighty flagship with only fighters.

Over the next year, Mara remained in place as a deep-cover agent within the Rebellion, and though she dutifully filed reports as often as the situation allowed over the first few months of that period, gradually, despite herself, she began to care about the people she lived with.

The Rebels genuinely believed Darth Vader's rule was having an adverse effect on the galaxy; he was a tyrant, they believed, only interested in shaping civilization to his whims. It was strange to hear her teacher, the closest thing she had to a father, talked about with such hatred, and while she objected at first, gradually, their points began to make sense to her.

For one, the Rebels insisted, the Emperor's ability to ignite a sun into supernova through the Force made him even more dangerous; what was to stop him from simply obliterating the home systems of his more vocal detractors? He and his apprentice were virtually living weapons, and the Rebels argued that both needed to be eliminated before they both allowed their power to shape them into even worse tyrants, controlling all life in the galaxy through fear of obliteration.

Mara had talked with her master about this shortly after the end of the Ssi-Ruuk war, and _he_ said he would never use his power to destroy a sun unless presented with no other option; he understood very well what this ability meant, and while he was content to let the rest of the Empire think he was willing to use it again, he had privately resolved not to.

Darth Nova, on the other hand, seemed almost eager to use his power again. Galen had truly changed after the final campaign of the war; the man whom people called Darth Nova was not the Galen Marek she had grown up with, and part of her was glad she had no further contact with him during the months after the Battle of Yavin, as he had become very disturbing to talk to after his ascension to Sith Lord.

Further clouding her thoughts was Luke Skywalker; sometimes he would say things that reminded her so much of Lord Vader that Mara had to force her face to remain expressionless so as not to give something away. But he was different; he had almost no trace of the ever-simmering rage within his father. She wondered if he was what his father had been like as a Jedi; the Rebels who had lived through the Clone Wars certainly thought so.

She had once heard a conversation between Bail Organa and Jan Dodonna that had changed the way she thought about both Skywalkers.

* * *

The two Rebel leaders were in the officer's lounge of _Home One,_ talking to one another at one of the tables as they ate their afternoon meal. Mara was sitting in one of the couches, working on a report on her datapad, when something Organa said caught her attention.

"Sometimes talking to that boy is just like talking to his father twenty years ago," Bail said.

Dodonna nodded as Mara glanced up. "You're right, Bail," the general replied. "I know it's certainly a boost for morale that he's decided to fight with us. The troops are happy to have a Jedi in the ranks, especially a Skywalker."

"That's a difficult example to live up to," Bail said. "Anakin was a hero in the Clone Wars, so much that the Separatists might have won if not for him. Who else could have killed Dooku?"

"But that's what worries me," said Dodonna. The general rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he glanced over at the other Rebel leader. "Anakin fell to the Dark Side, and look what's happened as a result. I know this is a terrible thing to say, but what if Luke starts to follow in his father's footsteps?"

Bail shook his head. "He won't. Obi-Wan told him as much as he knew about Anakin's fall, and I'm sure Luke won't make the same mistakes." Organa gestured to the viewport as he spoke, as if indicating the past. "From talking to Master Kenobi, I believe Anakin would not have done what he did if not for Palpatine; the Chancellor was darker than any of us realized, until it was too late."

Bail paused for a moment and looked down at his plate in thought before he continued. "It's probably not my place to say this, but from talking to both of them, I think Luke is becoming what Anakin was supposed to be, what he would have been, if not for the Chancellor."

Dodonna nodded in agreement. "I think you're right, Bail. Jedi were always very mysterious about the Force and whatever prophecy Anakin was supposed to fulfill, and I never understood much of that, but I do know Luke is a major asset to the cause. All of us will have to be very careful to not let him make the same mistakes as his father."

Bail frowned pensively. "I fear to think of what might happen for all of us if he does."

The two of them had continued talking after that, but around that time Solo had come in and started talking to her, distracting Mara from what else the Rebel leaders had said. She caught more about Jedi, and something about a 'Master Yoda', but she hadn't been able to listen closely enough.

It was strange hearing people talk about Lord Vader that way, odd to hear the other side of the issue, and before she caught herself, Mara had begun to wonder if Lord Vader was right after all.

* * *

As she packed her bag for the scouting mission with Skywalker, Mara paused as she retrieved some of the items none of the other Rebels knew she had. Her fingers paused on an injector which could be used to deliver either sedatives or poison, depending on the mission, and a small frown crossed her face as she looked at it.

Luke trusted her; he obviously cared very much about her, and would never suspect her of doing anything that might hurt him. It would be so easy to take advantage of that trust, to knock him out with the injector and take him to his father, but some part of her objected to this.

Despite herself, she had come to care about him, too. Mara knew that she should see him as an enemy, but try as she might, she could find nothing to hate about Luke, not even the fact that he despised his own father. Knowing all that Vader had done, especially to Luke's mother, the young Jedi's anger toward his father was understandable.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, and Mara hid the injector under the bag before getting up to answer.

It was Luke, but he wasn't alone; Han Solo was with him, and the Corellian smuggler grinned as Mara opened the door.

"Heya, Red," he said as he leaned against the doorframe. "You goin' with me and the kid?"

"When did you get back?" Mara asked.

"About an hour ago," Han said. "Jabba's pretty mad and the Empire's even madder, so I figured I'd better lay low for a while, stay under the radar with you guys."

"Han's going to take us in the _Falcon_," Luke said. "I decided to change the plan."

"Fine with me," Mara said, gesturing at her bag. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."

"We're just going to fuel up the _Falcon_ and give her a quick tune-up," Han said. "We'll probably leave in a couple hours."

"See you then," she said, making sure to smile.

Luke and Han nodded and left, headed off down the softly lit hallway.

Oddly, it _was_ fine with her, Mara thought as she stepped back into the main room of her quarters and sat down on the bed.

Mara rationalized to herself that taking Skywalker on the _Millennium Falcon_ would be next to impossible; she would almost certainly be able to sneak up on Luke and sedate him, but then she would still have Solo and the Wookiee to deal with. Adding to that was the fact that the Corellian and his partner had modified their freighter so far from factory specifications that Mara doubted anyone but the two of them could figure out all its systems. A pair of smugglers would have so many fail-safes and other tricks that they could have the entire ship sealed off and unusable by anyone but the two of them in an instant.

She would then have to force them to unlock the systems, but a pair as wily as Han and Chewbacca would find some way to trick her or overpower her; even with all her training, Mara knew Solo and the Wookiee were clever enough to come up with something, given enough time.

Yes, the sympathetic part of her assured the agent, now was not the right time. More opportunities would come in the future.

Whether or not she would take them was a matter for further debate.

* * *

-/\-

* * *

Author's Note: First, apologies for the long delay. I'm writing several other stories besides this one, and that, combined with the repairs I had to have done on my laptop, caused me to have less time for writing than usual the last couple months. But, I have it back now, and I'm busily writing the next and last oneshot in this series, as well as 'One Missed Strike, Part II'.

Thanks goes to my beta reader, Desteni, for her suggestions and advice on this story. Part of the delay was me taking a little extra time to improve this story based on her comments, so I am very grateful for her help. Thanks also goes to you, the readers, for following the story and letting me know how much you're enjoying it.

Next, we fast-forward another year to _You Guys Need Some Fun_, a lighter story in which Han Solo decides his friends need a break from saving the galaxy, so he takes them to Ord Mantell for the Blockade Runner's Derby, to enter the _Millennium Falcon_ in the race. But, unbeknownst to them, the deadly bounty hunter Boba Fett tracks them there. Solo and his friends are worth a substantial amount of money to the Empire, particularly Luke Skywalker, and Boba Fett never passes up a challenging hunt...

(UPDATE 10/20/09: Sorry to those who were still expecting it, but I don't think _You Guys Need Some Fun_ is ever going to be posted. I tried, I really did, but a space race is just not something that works well in text. It's a very visual thing, and there's only so many ways I could say 'Han swerved the _Falcon_ around a chunk of space debris' without getting repetitive. I just cannot get it to a point where I'm happy enough with it to post. Plus, that story was not essential to the storyline of this AU, so as much as I hate to admit defeat, you're just going to have to use your imaginations as to how that adventure went. I've provided a few clues here and there in '_One Missed Strike, Part II_', so you can just head on over there now.

This has been a somewhat humbling reminder that I still have quite a ways to go in perfecting my writing skills, so it's useful at least in pushing me to work harder to improve. Let that be a lesson to you: You can always get better. Never think you've reached the peak of your skills; always try to do better than you did in your last story. So, on that note, thank you for reading and reviewing, helping me to improve!)


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